14 DAY TRIAL // Two new photos of Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) from the third “Twilight” movie, “Eclipse,” have just made their way online, thanks to director David Slade and Twitter – and, of course, his willingness to keep fans up-to-date with all progress on the film. One pic shows Taylor in full makeup for the film, while, in the second, he can be seen doing a backflip.
“Mr. Taylor Lautner. A photo I took during early camera lighting tests. Not a whisker in sight.” Slade writes of the first photo, which is a close-up on Taylor’s face after makeup was done with him. The second shows his incredible physical abilities, those he most likely obtained after training intensely for the part of the wolf in the “Twilight” sequel. It’s still impressive no matter what, fans believe. “Taylor Lautner Pic from set, yes that is him mid backflip. He does it from standing still.” Slade writes, apparently just as impressed with the actor’s performance as his fans are.
“New Moon” represents a change from the narrative in the first film / book, in that it deals more with Bella (Kristen Stewart)’s relationship with old-time friend Jacob Black (Lautner), whom she considers the closest thing to normal she got to cross paths with in at least a year. However, as fans know, Jake too has his own secret to hide, a dual nature that sees him shapeshifting as a wolf when humans need protection from vampires. As it is already common knowledge, in the second book, once the wolf gene in Jacob is activated, he starts growing almost overnight.
Clearly, Taylor had to rise to the challenge, especially since Summit mostly agreed to have him back for the second film after pressure from the fans and the media. In a talk with Interview magazine, Lautner revealed he worked hard to get the body that would certainly represent one of the main attractions of “New Moon,” as well as to improve on whatever abilities he had at the time, strength and agility. The result is obvious: they don’t say a picture is worth a thousand words for nothing.
“As soon as I finished filming ‘Twilight,’ I knew I had to get to work right away; there could be no waiting involved. I was in the gym five days a week, two hours a day. At one point, I was going seven days straight. I had put on a lot of weight, and then I started losing it drastically, so I was worried. It turned out I was overworking myself. My trainer told me that I couldn’t break a sweat, because I was burning more calories than I was putting on. The hardest thing for me was the eating. At one point I had to shove as much food in my body as possible to pack on calories. My trainer wanted me to do six meals a day and not go two hours without eating.” Taylor was saying a short while ago.
