The 'abduction' of Taylor Lautner

MANILA, Philippines - The action-spy thriller Abduction tells the story of Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner), a high school teenager who has the uneasy feeling that he’s living someone else’s life. When he stumbles upon an image of himself as a little boy on a missing person’s website, he realizes his parents are not his own and that his entire life is a lie. Targeted by a team of trained killers, he is forced to go on the run with his neighbor Karen (Lily Collins), who he’s been wanting to ask out for years.

Lautner talks about how it was his character’s journey that first drew him to this story, that they always had hundreds of female fans on set waiting to meet him, that he really enjoyed the boxing he got to do for the film, how he surprisingly got to do all of his own stunts and how living the same life he had before all of his success helps keep him grounded.  He also talked about his character, Nathan Price and Jason Bourne.

Question: Do you ever get tired of the screams and the fainting girls?

Lautner: “To be honest, no! I’m sure there may be moments, if I’m tired or something, or I’m just waking up, but not really. If that’s their way of showing their passion, then I will take it.”

Since Twilight, you look like you have definitely slimmed down a bit.

“A little bit, right?”

Is it nice not to have to keep up the whole regimen of working out as much?

“It is. It’s just a different kind of working out now. Now, I get to stay more active and play more sports, which is a treat for me. I can eat what I want, which is not necessarily junk because I’ve always pretty much eaten healthy. Now, I just don’t have to force myself to eat when I’m not hungry. I don’t have somebody coming and shoving food down my throat, every five minutes. It’s great.”

In this movie, five minutes in, you are shirtless. When you saw the script did you think, “Do I have to be shirtless again?”

“Well, when I saw the script for the first time, there were probably five or six shirtless scenes, and it got cut down to one shirt one. It has to make sense for the character. It just can’t be nonsense. So, we found the one moment where it would make sense, and that was it.”

What specifically drew you to this script, in the first place?

“In the very first place, it was this character’s journey. Just hearing the idea of the script, and where the character starts and where he ends, and everything he deals with, I knew it would be exciting and challenging for me, as an actor. That’s what attracted me to it, originally.”

Where do you see yourself two years from now, after all of the Twilight stuff is done? What direction do you want to go in?

“That is a good question. If you had asked me that question two years ago, I would not have guessed that I would be sitting here today. But, my goal is to continue to challenge myself to a wide variety of roles and genres. Another thing that attracted me to this was that it was different than anything I had ever done before, and I had a great experience with it. I love it, but now I am definitely looking forward to doing something completely different.”

After doing Twilight, would you do another franchise?

“Yeah, if it made sense. You take it one movie at a time. If people enjoy it and I love it, then I’m definitely open to the idea.”

What are your thoughts on this turning into some sort of teen Bourne franchise?

“I guess it could make sense, but I try and not think about it. We try to just take it one movie at a time and, right now, our focus is Abduction, and Abduction alone.”

Do you feel like you need to take a break at all, or do you feel like you should keep the momentum going by just diving right into something else?

“It’s a good question. I’m having fun right now. I’m promoting and I’m traveling, which I really enjoy. I love traveling. So, I’m good to still go. But, I definitely find time to relax, and I definitely find my downtime.”

This movie is about family. Are you still really close to your family?

“I’m busy. Over the past year, I’ve only been home for five weeks, but I’m definitely very close with my family. They are always visiting me. It gets lonely on set, or when you are traveling, so it’s always great to have somebody with you.”

Was it fun to get to use your martial arts training? How different is movie martial arts from real martial arts?

“It was very exciting that I got to use it, for the first time in a movie. It is different because it’s all choreographed, but it was exciting. What was also exciting was being able to learn new things, like boxing, motorcycle riding and wrestling.