Taylor Lautner, the actor who played Jacob Black in the Twilight saga said that he was left with body image issues after playing his role in the movies.
He played a shapeshifting werewolf in 2009’s Twilight. Following that, he starred in four more instalments based on the books by Stephanie Meyer.
He was affected by having to appear shirtless so often on screen.
Young Taylor Lautner
He said: “When I was in it, when I was 16 through 20 years old, I was starring in this franchise where my character is known for taking his shirt off every other second. No, I did not know that it was affecting me or that it was going to affect me in future with body image. In the first movie, I was 140lbs and in ‘New Moon’ I was 175, so that wasn’t my natural body. And I had to work hard for it, and I had to work very, very hard just to maintain it.
He added that in the first film he weighed 140 pounds and later on in New Moon he weighed 175 pounds. He said that it was not his natural body and that he had to “work very hard for it and very, very hard just to maintain it.”
After the franchise ended in 2012, the 30-year-old detailed his hesitation of going to the gym after being “forced to be in a gym multiple times a day, six days a week” while filming Twilight.
Mental Health
Taylor Lautner also said that he reacted negatively to seeing photos of his changing body shared online. He reminded fans that they can change whatever they want to about their body physically but it will be “all for nothing” if their mental health is not in check.
He added: “But then seeing it online where they put the side by sides of me shirtless in the ocean in a scene in that movie compared to me in Eclipse or whatever, and being like ‘Wow, he’s let it all go!’ I was like ‘Oh man!’
“Your body can look unbelievable. You can be ripped, shredded, whatever. You can lose weight, you can put on muscle and if you’re not healthy mentally, then that’s all for nothing because that can work against you.”
Happiness
Above all, Taylor Lautner said that taking care of your body should be done “for the right reasons.”
“Don’t find happiness in what you want your body to look like,” he said. “Don’t think just because you lose the 20 pounds or put on the muscle, you’re going to wake up and look in the mirror and all of a sudden be happy. That’s not where you should be finding value.”
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