Taylor Lautner

Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob in the Twilight movie franchise says his childhood karate coach convinced him to try acting. Lautner recently told Teen Vogue about his coach convincing him to go on auditions while he was training as a martial arts champion. When asked what he likes about acting now that he’s made a success of it, Lautner said he liked taking on new personas: “Taking on roles that were the opposite of what I could be in real life? That’s still my favorite thing.” He also says he would like to do a series of movies in the same tradition as the Bourne Identity series of movies.

Lautner has shot to popularity after the great success of Twilight. In the upcoming films New Moon and Eclipse, fans discover that Jacob can turn into a werewolf. In a recent interview with MTV.com, he says, “Well, Jacob’s thing is he actually can transform in midair. So I got to do these really cool stunts where I got to actually run and then they’d hook me up on wires and I’d jump up in the air and then I’d come to a jolting stop and have to hang there for a bit. That’s what you saw in the trailer, actually. That was a lot of fun. I get to do a lot of cool stunts in this one.”

But Lautner doesn’t claim all the credit for Jacob’s popularity, telling Teen Vogue, “I think the fans would love anybody who played Jacob … I’m just lucky to be the one who got the chance.”