Taylor Lautner was just 16 years old when the first Twilight film was released in 2008, and he quickly became a household name alongside co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.
The movies attracted a devoted following and made over $3 billion at the box office. Amid the film’s success, Lautner explained that the fame would become overwhelming and he couldn’t “live a normal life” without being followed or recognized.
Joining US talk show Today on Thursday (January 27), the actor shared: “Not many things in life can come and happen overnight. Fame can. It also can disappear overnight.
“When I was 16, 17, 18 years old, waking up and trying to just go out for a walk or go on a date and I had 12 cars waiting outside my house to follow me wherever I’m going or show up to an airport or anywhere, and you have thousands of fans screaming.”
According to his Cuckoo cast member, he didn’t step foot inside a cinema or shopping centre for at least 10 years in fear of attracting attention – when he did, “it felt like freedom”.
“I went so many years either not leaving my house, or if I did, hat, sunglasses, and just like, scared. It built up something inside of me where, I didn’t know it, but I was scared to go out. I’d get super anxious to go out. So I just didn’t.”
After the final Twilight film premiered in 2012, Lautner went on to star in a few films and two television shows — Cuckoo and Scream Queens — but took a break from acting in 2016, which gave him time to reflect on his career. During that time met his fiancé, Taylor Dome, who he got engaged to in November 2021, he said the media attention slowly started to wane.
“In the moment, it got frustrating because you just wanted to live a normal life. But then when that’s taken away from you at all, you start to question yourself and start to be like ‘oh, do people not care about me anymore?’ When it goes away a little bit, you notice it, and that’s the dangerous part because that can mess with your mind.”
The actor has now returned to acting in Netflix’s Home Team.
