The Journal Meets... Abduction star Taylor Lautner
Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner has stepped out of the shadow of Jacob, the character who has made him a teen heartthrob, and makes his bid for success beyond the vampire/werewolf franchise, in action-thriller Abduction.
Lautner plays Nathan, a young man whose world is turned upside down when he discovers that his whole life has been a lie, and he is at the centre of an international conflict involving the CIA and the Serbian mob.
“This was really a huge step for me because it’s very different from anything that I’ve done before,” the 18-year-old actor said, “but I think the biggest difference here is that the cast we were surrounded by in this movie was unbelievable. We were surrounded by an all-star cast in Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello. I really couldn’t have done it without them.”
Although he plays a civilian, Lautner himself is an expert at martial arts, and found the fighting scenes difficult to dumb down.
“There was a few times where I just wanted to go crazy and I wanted to throw flips and stuff,” he laughed. “There was one flip that made it in there but there were a few times where I’d throw a few moves where they’d be like, ‘Taylor, Nathan doesn’t know how to do that, so you can’t do that.’ So, there were a few times where I was a little frustrated. I had to take a step back.”
It’s his first starring role in a movie, and the first film in a while that hasn’t been part of the Twilight franchise. “It was a little different at first,” he admits, “but as I was filming this I knew that as soon as I was done filming this I was going back to spend seven months filming the last two. But this was great to be with new people.”
There’s a very steamy scene his character has with co-star Lily Collins midway through the film, and Lautner admits there was no preparation. “We were like, ‘Let’s just see what happens and hopefully it’ll look swell,’” he said, grinning. “The only awkward part about it is that we had 100 to 150 grown men staring at us during all of it.
"That’s their job, so I totally get it, but that thought is always in the back of your mind and you have to get rid of it and live these characters for that moment. But it was fine. We jumped right into it.”
