In 2008, it would have been hard to find a teenage girl who was not in love with Taylor Lautner.

Catapulted to international fame as Jacob Black in the exceedingly successful Twilight franchise, Lautner had reached a level of stardom experienced by few people in this world.

The 2005 vampire sci-fi romance novel by Stephenie Meyer brought it’s three little-known leads – Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen), Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) and Taylor Lautner – to a remarkable level of stardom and saleability.

Lautner played the long-haired deadly werewolf, with a soft heart. And he was one half of one of the most famous dichotomies in film history: ‘Team Edward’ versus ‘Team Jacob’.

The respective teams split fans in half, as debates over who should win Bella Swan’s heart remained strife for years after.

But 12 years after the first Twilight film was released, Lautner's acting career has seemingly halted. In 2012, the last sequel of the franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, appeared in cinemas.

Since then, the now 27-year-old has played much smaller roles. In 2013, for example, Lautner appeared in Grown Ups 2 alongside Adam Sandler. He played a fratboy who wasn't considered one of the main characters.

In 2015 he starred in Netflix's The Ridiculous 6, once again with Adam Sandler. It is one of the few films to receive a 0 per cent rating on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2016, Lautner appeared in his last filmed, titled Run The Tide. The indie drama has an 11 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received a plethora of negative reviews online.

When asked by Good Morning America if he sometimes felt "pigeonholed" by the Twilight franchise, the actor admitted, "That's kind of why I want to choose things that are different."

He also told Reuters in 2016 that his career was not his priority.

"For me the biggest thing is just surrounding myself with people that I love, just spending time, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing as long as I’m with my friends and my family," he told the publication.

"You know, I could be sitting in a cardboard box and that’s where I’m happiest."

As for his personal life, Lautner was previously in a relationship with Billie Lourd, who he met on the set of Screem Queens, a television series he played a minor role in during 2016. Lautner and Lourd were together when her mother and grandmother, actresses Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, suddenly passed away within days of each other in 2016. After a few months of dating, the couple split up.

Most recently, Lautner has found love with a nurse, also called Taylor. The two have been together since 2018.

Previously, Lautner dated the likes of Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Maika Monroe.

 

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Eskimo Season ❄️⛄️

A post shared by Taylor Lautner (@taylorlautner) on Dec 6, 2019 at 10:35am PST

 

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#taylorcrushthursday

A post shared by TAY???? (@taydome) on Jun 6, 2019 at 12:05pm PDT

As for his film career, unlike his Twilight co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, both of whom have experienced resurgences in their acting careers recently, Taylor Lautner's acting skills have failed to shine through post the vampire franchise.

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