In the film industry, a single film can make or
break a career. This has been the case since the dawn of Hollywood.
The 2008 vampire romance movie "Twilight" set its leads up for stardom,
based on a best-selling book series with a built-in, eager fan base.
"The Twilight Saga" resulted in five films and was a pop culture phenomenon at the time,
but not every star of the franchise reaped the long-term rewards.
While two of the leads, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, have been able to find
critical and commercial success following the end of the "Twilight" franchise,
the series' third lead, Taylor Lautner, has not been as fortunate.
This is actually kind of a surprise,
seeing as the actor's role as the perennially shirtless werewolf,
Jacob Black, looked like a pretty safe pass to stardom, and Lautner was perfectly convincing
in the role — as convincing as anyone could be playing a smoldering, young, jacked wolfman.
"So you're a werewolf."
"Yeah. Last time I checked."
Nevertheless, Lautner, who played Jacob across all five films,
has failed to turn his "Twilight" exposure to A-list stardom, while Pattinson and Stewart
have both managed to star in a healthy mix of mainstream hits and critical darlings.
In fact, since the release of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" in 2012, Lautner's
appearances in movies or television has been noticeably more limited than you might assume.
However, this relatively unimpressive trajectory hasn't necessarily been Lautner's own fault.
In fact, one might argue that his dwindling career can be traced back
to a single film — an action thriller that single-handedly ruined Taylor Lautner's career.
"That doesn't look like me."
To be perfectly honest, Lautner is no stranger to movies that got a poor critical reception.
The "Twilight" movies weren't beloved by critics, and his first starring vehicle,
"The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl," was disliked by both critics and audiences.
The 2010 ensemble comedy "Valentine's Day," which to be fair he only appeared
in relatively briefly, has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 18%.
"And Felicia, what is it about Willy that's so cool?"
"Besides the fact that he's totally hot?"
However, if you're looking to pinpoint a particular film that
took a heavy toll on Lautner's career prospects, his 2011 starring vehicle,
"Abduction," ended up with a Rotten Tomatoes score in the dreaded single digits: a measly 5%.
The film's box office results weren't very encouraging either,
as the film grossed just over $28 million domestically on a $35 million budget,
relying on its international box office totals to turn a profit.
This might not have reflected too well on Lautner as a bankable leading man,
seeing as "Abduction" was the first starring role he did after the initial success of "Twilight."
This was his opportunity to show Hollywood he had what it took to be an action hero and a dramatic
lead. "Abduction" not connecting with audiences or critics seemed to signal that Lautner would
be unable to carry the franchise's success on to other projects, and his acting CV since then
makes it fairly clear that productions have been somewhat wary of casting him in leading
roles ever since. Lautner's last movie role to date came in the 2016 film "Run The Tide."
"Are you serious?"
Though "Abduction" certainly didn't do any favors for Taylor Lautner's action chops,
it doesn't necessarily mean that his days as an actor are over.
Just look at his "The Twilight Saga" co-star Robert Pattinson, who spent many post-"Twilight"
years gravitating toward relatively obscure and creepy dramas and arthouse films, and has
only recently started returning to comparatively mainstream fare, like Christopher Nolan's "Tenet,"
and Matt Reeves' upcoming "The Batman."
While Pattinson went artsy, Lautner has been quietly reinventing himself as a bit of a comedian. He played Dr. Cassidy Cascade in
the second season of "Scream Queens," a series with plenty of funny moments, and he replaced
none other than Andy Samberg as the central character of the TV show "Cuckoo" after Season 1.
"’Cuz I can do this!"
"You can do what?"
"This! Right here! Maybe I'm already doing it! I don't know."
In 2015, the "Twilight" star had a prominent role in Adam
Sandler's comedy western, "The Ridiculous 6."
"Gol' dang!"
According to IMDb, Lautner is currently filming "Home Team," which is produced by Sandler's Happy
Madison Productions. Like "The Ridiculous 6," the movie is scheduled to debut directly on Netflix.
Apart from the occasional comedic role, Lautner has recently kept himself busy with
real estate deals, as he bought a luxurious mansion in Agoura Hills, California in 2020.
So even though he might not be the first person Hollywood calls for action movies these days,
Taylor Lautner seems to be living his best life, and keeps himself occupied
with fun projects that have very little to do with his days as a hunky werewolf.
And if you're curious about revisiting those days,
the five "Twilight" films are currently all available to view on Netflix.
"Thank you."
"No problem."
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