Twilight's Team Edward Vs Team Jacob Fan War Hurt Taylor Lautner's Feelings
During an appearance on Alex Cooper's podcast "Call Her Daddy," Taylor Lautner, known for playing teenaged werewolf Jacob Black in the massively popular "Twilight" films, admitted that the movie's fictional love triangle gave him some real-life issues.
While Lautner and his co-star Robert Pattinson, who plays Jacob's romantic rival Edward Cullen as the two squabble over Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), were on press tours to promote the franchise, he always felt like he got a horrible reaction compared to Pattinson, who was a bona fide teen heartthrob in his own right. Why? Because fans were overwhelmingly "Team Edward," he felt like he was losing.
"I think it was awkward at times for the two of us to be standing together on a balcony and having 10,000 girls booing Rob, but then cheering for me, but then this half booing me and cheering [for him], but us having to have some sort of friendship," he revealed. "It was difficult. I think it was tough. I don't know for [Rob], but for me at least it definitely, especially at the age I was at, you get your feelings hurt sometimes when you shouldn't. It's hard not to sometimes. It was a little difficult."
Why were Edward and Jacob pitted against one another in Twilight?
Why was there even a battle among "Twilight" fans over Team Edward and Team Jacob? One has to start at the beginning. Shortly after Bella Swan moves to Forks, Washington, to live with her dad, Charlie (Billy Burke), she encounters Edward Cullen, a pale, handsome boy in her high school class who initially seems to hate her. As she soon learns, he's a vampire — along with the entire Cullen family — and her blood smells particularly delicious to him. Naturally, they fall in love and start dating, even though Edward could snap and kill Bella at any moment if he's not careful.
Enter Jacob, a friend of Bella's who comforts her in the franchise's second installment, "New Moon," after Edward ends the relationship. After Jacob starts acting strange, he reveals that he's recently become a shapeshifter — a trait that runs in his indigenous Quileute bloodline — and can turn into a wolf, positioning himself as a natural enemy to Edward. The two boys eventually figure out a way to both stay in Bella's life ... and truthfully, aside from a kiss here and there, Bella's devotion to Edward makes it impossible to view Jacob as a real contender for her heart. (He falls in love with her baby later on. "Twilight" is a strange series.)
What is Taylor Lautner doing today?
Representing Team Jacob may have been hard for Taylor Lautner, but he's certainly bounced back. The actor hasn't appeared in very many projects since the "Twilight" films, but he still discusses the films on podcasts and during interviews. Also, he once dated Taylor Swift and is now friends with her, which is why he's been in the spotlight lately.
Lautner attended Swift's massive, record-smashing Eras Tour this year with his wife, Taylor Dome Lautner, and during the proceedings, he now (somewhat infamously) backflipped down the singer's enormous arrowhead-shaped stage when she invited him to appear alongside Joey King and Presley Cash. Lautner, King, and Cash were on hand to help Swift present the music video for her 2023 single "I Can See You," a previously unreleased vault track that debuted on her re-recorded third album "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)." (Lautner and Swift dated around the time that album was originally released; the apology song "Back to December" is largely understood to be about the end of their relationship.)
Ever since appearing in the "I Can See You" video — and backflipping again at a screening of Swift's Eras Tour film — Lautner has been back in the news, which is why he sat down with Alex Cooper to talk about Swift, "Twilight," and everything in between. Seems like he feels a little bit better about the Edward and Jacob battle these days, though.