‘Twilight’ Star Gets Candid About Being ‘Fired’ — & Life After the Movies

Actor Taylor Lautner is getting candid about how he managed to stay cast as the Twilight character Jacob Black.

In the November 5 episode of his and his wife, Taylor Dome‘s podcast, The Squeeze, alongside their guest Twilight star Nikki Reed, Lautner discussed his time acting in five Twilight films.

During the podcast episode, Dome referenced that she was a fan of Twilight when she was a child. She explained that she preferred Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) other supernatural love interest, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), over Jacob, because she “was too young” to be into Lautner’s muscular frame.

Reed, who played vampire Rosalie Hale, then applauded Lautner’s “dedication at such a young age” to have “abs” and “the reason behind the abs.” Lautner, who was hired at the age of 16 to play Jacob in 2008’s Twilight, interjected that he had to have abs to continue portraying the character for the sequels. As fans of the franchise are aware, Jacob gets more muscular due to becoming a werewolf in the second Twilight book, New Moon.

“I got fired. I literally got fired and I needed to grow abs to get my job back,” said Lautner while recording the podcast episode.

Reed chimed in that Lautner “worked really, really hard to prove that [he was] dedicated to whatever that role might need and [he] did such a great job.” Reed, who was 20 when Twilight premiered, also shared she felt protective toward Lautner during the production of the Twilight films, which were based on Stephenie Meyer‘s book series.

“I always felt such love. And I was so proud of you and I wanted to always champion that,” said Reed to her Twilight co-star.

Taylor Lautner Spoke About Fighting for His ‘Twilight’ Role in a 2023 Interview

In a December 2023 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, hosted by Alex Cooper, Lautner opened up about being temporarily fired from the Twilight films. He explained that the role of Jacob was nearly given to someone else for Twilight: New Moon, which premiered in 2009.

“Their plan was to just cast a regular 16-year-old, which I was at the time. And then they were going to cast someone in their mid-20s to be Jacob for the rest of the franchise. I had to fight for my role in the franchise,” recalled Lautner in the 2023 interview.

He said that his team encouraged producers to meet with Lautner after he became focused on changing his physique.

“When my team got the call they said ‘Have you seen him recently?’ And they said ‘No. Why?’ And my team said, ‘You might want to take a meeting with him or something.’ I’d been hardcore working out for about nine months at that point. I probably had about 20 to 25 pounds added at that point. And they were surprised, but they didn’t make it easy,” said Lautner to Cooper.

According to Lautner, he still had to “re-audition” for Twilight: New Moon.

Taylor Lautner Suggested He Struggled After the ‘Twilight’ Movies Ended

In the November 2025 Squeeze episode, Lautner said he had difficulty remembering working on the Twilight film franchise.

“I think it is a trauma related thing, but I just forget so much of that time of my life. I truly can’t even remember it,” said Lautner on his podcast.

He also suggested he had some difficulty after the final Twilight film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, was released in 2012. He said he “did the opposite” of Reed and put his “full identity into” his career as a Twilight personality.

“So as soon as you start having things taken away from you, or just being judged, or whatever it was, because I did the opposite of you, and I put everything into that, and lost, you know,” said Lautner.

Reed responded by encouraging him to not “be too hard on [himself]” about the situation. She explained that she learned to be vigilant about her career because she had a difficult childhood. In addition, she said that “there was a lot of pressure on” Lautner during the production of the Twilight films.

“I watched a lot of that from the outside and the amount of pressure that was put on you to be a certain way and look a certain way,” said Reed to Lautner. “I actually just have such love and compassion for watching that boy grow up and like grow into who you are now.”

This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.