Taylor Lautner's Abs May Have Saved His Career

Wonderwall, Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 5:20pm (PDT)

By Michelle Lanz

Most of the "Twilight" buzz and adoration is directed toward Robert Pattinson's signature coif and Kristen Stewart's lower lip bite. But what about sleeper hottie Taylor Lautner? His abs are just about to rocket him to sex-symbol stardom.

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OK, so he's only 17 and we have to be careful what we say, but seriously, where did this kid come from?

In the November issue of GQ, Taylor talks about how bulking up basically saved his career, and more specifically, how it saved his role as Jake the shape-shifting werewolf in "Twilight."

Just a few years ago he was relatively unknown with credits like "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" (ouch). But that all changed when he landed a role in a little film based on a book he'd never heard of.

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During the filming of the first "Twilight" film, GQ reports that the studio didn't think he had the right build to pull off the boy-turned-werewolf-turned-romantic-lead in the sequel. And to be honest his horrible fake wig really didn't do it for us at all in the first film.

So Taylor hit the gym, ate every two hours and packed on 30 pounds of lean, mean, muscle.

“I tried to stay focused on the things I could control,” he said.

Focus and control, indeed. Now the "Twilight" sequel's marketing team has latched onto his chiseled six-pack so much so that it's displayed in magazines everywhere (and this here Web site, of course).

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Who was that Robert guy again?

You'd think all this attention would go to his head, but Lautner plays coy when it comes to his new bod. He insists it's all about being a convincing werewolf: “When a man transforms into a wolf,” Lautner clarifies, “all of his clothes get shredded. When he comes back to human form, he's wearing ripped jeans, and that's about it. It's the way it was written. The great thing about this series is we stay true to the books.”

Right. Staying true to the books. We're glad you're doing that, too, Taylor. Keep up the good (ab) work.