Taylor Lautner Reveals “Twilight” Caused Him Decades of Body Image Issues

So many people who watched the Twilight franchise have fallen in love with the stories and characters, especially with Taylor Lautner. He played werewolf Jacob Black in all 5 Twilight saga movies, showing his hot, muscular body. But it turns out that he was under a lot of pressure, and now he reveals what is behind his look.

There has been a huge Before/After for him.

Taylor Lautner played the role of Jacob Black in the Twilight franchise, and his physical modification for the role was well-known, as he underwent a significant physical change to portray the character’s transformation from a teenage boy to a werewolf.

At first, he didn’t realize that there would come a time for him when his body image would cause problems.

After filming the Twilight Saga, Taylor Lautner talked how topics of body image are often connected with women, “being viewed as having this unbelievable body” was difficult for him. “When I was in it, when I was 16 through 20 years old, 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 going to affect me in the future with body image.”

“But now, looking back at it, of course, it did, and of course, it was going to.”

It took a lot of effort to get Jacob Black’s body.

The actor had to undergo an incredible change from human to wolf in New Moon to play the part, turning from a thin teen to a hot icon. He said that his 3,200-calorie daily diet and 5 days per week of exercise transformed him into a werewolf.

Lautner confessed that the physical change had a negative effect on his body.

When recalling those times, Lautner admits that the show was his “entire life.” “In the first movie, I was 140 lbs., and in New Moon, I was 175. So yeah, that wasn’t my natural body. I had to work very hard for it and very, very hard just to maintain it.”

After being “forced to be in a gym multiple times a day, 6 days a week” for years, according to Lautner, he began “rebelling against the gym” and eventually stopped exercising at all.

“What happens when you don’t want to see a gym? You start losing the 8-pack. I started having a more normal body,” Lautner said.

After he stopped going to the gym, his body changed, and fans soon started comparing side-by-side photos. This criticism, which continued for years, eventually led to a decline in Lautner’s mental health.

But the actor was able to learn to appreciate and love his body no matter what shape it was in.

“Don’t find happiness in what you want your body to look like,” Lautner added. “Don’t think just because you lose the 20 lbs or put on the muscle, that 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.”