Twilight producers wanted to recast Taylor Lautner with ‘built, muscular man’

Actor said he gained ‘20 or 25 lbs’ in order to fight for his role back

Taylor Lautner has said he had to fight for his Twilight role back after producers wanted to recast him with a “built, muscular man”.

The now-31-year-old was just 16 when he was first cast as werewolf Jacob Black in the 2008 movie based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling vampire book series. He went on to reprise the role throughout the rest of the films in the franchise: New Moon (2009), Eclipse (2010) and Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) and Part 2 (2012).

However, that wasn’t always the plan, Lautner revealed on a recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. “They called me and said, ‘Thank you for your participation, but we’re recasting you for the rest of the franchise,” the actor recalled.

“My character in the first book is supposed to be like a 16-year-old little scrawny boy, and in the middle of New Moon, he transforms into this 25-year-old looking built, muscular man. So their plan all along was to cast a 16-year-old, which they did. I was 16 at the time,” he continued.

“And then they were going to cast like a mid-20s guy to carry on and be Jacob for the rest of the franchise. I had to fight for my role back,” he said, adding that for nine months, he worked out and gained “20 or 25 lbs”.

“So when we got that call, my team was like, ‘Have you seen him recently?’” He explained that despite his physical transformation, he was still required to reaudition for the part.

In a July interview, Lautner opened up about the “deep resentment” he used to feel towards his Twilight-era fame.

Taylor Lautner (Getty Images)

“I was always incredibly thankful and feel super blessed for what it brought me but maybe there was a little bit of, like, resentment, deep in there, going like, ‘I wish I could have experienced this part of normalcy’,” he said on SiriusXM’s Today Show.

“But I do think that I also needed the space,” he explained. “Now, I wouldn’t change it, but I think it needed the growth to get to that place.”

Since the completion of the Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson-led franchise, Lautner has appeared in a handful of critical flops such as the action-thriller Tracers (2015), the Western comedy The Ridiculous 6 (2015) and the drama Run the Tide (2016).

Earlier this year, Lautner and his wife (also named Taylor Lautner) launched their co-hosted podcast, The Squeeze, where they interview other celebrities and expert guests about mental health.