“Twilight: New Moon” stars and filmmakers talk shirtless scenes
Taylor Lautner plays Jacob Black in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
LOS ANGELES – “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” Week continues today on BAM’s Blog, with the filmmakers and stars commenting on the frequent shirtless-young-man moments in the sequel.
Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) werewolf BFF, and the rest of his pack spend most of the film shirtless. Vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) takes off his shirt to reveal himself to the sunlight in one of the film’s most dramatic moments. Even bad vamp Laurent (Edi Gathegi) shows up with his shirt open.
“I wish I could take credit for the moments of Jacob pulling off his shirt and Edward pulling off his shirt. They are in the book and it seemed unwise to leave them out,” said screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg at the recent “New Moon” press day at the Four Seasons Hotel, referring to Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling second “Twilight” novel, “New Moon.”
“That would be a cut that you would regret,” added director Chris Weitz. “I like to say it’s all essentially economics. You see, the Quileutes don’t have very high average income and they can’t afford the T-shirts they would need, given the amount of times they turn into wolves on short notice and their clothes burst. So, really, they’d have to go to Walmart every 10 minutes. They just go around in shorts for that reason.”
Jacob and his fellow werewolves are all part of the Quileute Indian tribe. Some tribe members have the genetic ability to transform to wolves with lightning-quick speed, shredding their clothes in the process. They also have a body temperature of 108.9 degrees, so clothes aren’t a priority despite the chilly weather in Forks, Wash.
Lautner, 17, famously packed on 30 pounds of muscle to play Jacob, and he spends much of the movie showing off his well-toned abs. But one scene in particular was embarrassing for him: Stripping off his shirt to dab at a head wound Bella sustains in a minor motorcycle mishap.
“I start laughing so hard every time I see that scene. ‘You’re bleeding? OK, let me fix it.’ It’s so embarrassing,” he said with a laugh.
But he denied tabloid reports that he said he would never take another role that requires him to remove his shirt.
“I didn’t say that. If I have to, if the character requires it, I will. Who knows, in 10 years, I might do that,” Lautner said. “If a character requires me to lose 40 pounds, I’ll do it. It’s just what the character requires.”
For Pattinson, pulling of his shirt in the dramatic scenes in Italy had a strong effect on his connection to the character and the series.
“It was one of the closest moments I really felt to people’s emotional attachment to the character because there were so many extras there who were just ‘Twilight’ fans,” he said. “Just taking that one step into the light, it’s been the one moment, since the first Comic-Con, where I’ve felt the whole weight of anticipation and responsibility to all the people who are so obsessed with the stories. It was a good moment. It was very nerve-wracking, but I probably felt the most in character that I’ve ever felt, throughout the whole series, at that moment.”
-BAM
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Thanks for this discussion of the shirtlessness. Not coincidentally, going half-naked makes the Indian characters look more savage.
For more on the subject, see:
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2009/11/why-new-moons-werewolves-go-shirtless.htm