Taylor Lautner isn't into trashing his time with Twilight these days.
In fact, in a glow-up that would make any vampire proud, he's letting go and embracing his past. As he recently shared, the actor "only fond memories" of his time in the film series, confessing there was a lingering "resentment" at first for the life he may he had missed during those years.
"I was always incredibly thankful and feel super blessed for what it brought me but maybe there was a little bit of, like, resentment, deep in there, going like 'I wish I could have experienced this part of normalcy,'" he said during the May 18 episode of SiriusXM's TODAY Radio Show. "Now, I wouldn't change it, but I think it needed the growth to get to that place."
After a decade since he last portrayed werewolf Jacob Black, the actor added that he "needed the space" after being rocketed to stardom as a teenager.
Taylor's relationship with the franchise has been a bit complicated. In a January 2022 appearance on Today, he revealed the fear that gripped him when facing the public eye at the height of the Twilight mania.
"I went so many years either not leaving my house," he admitted, "or if I did, hat, sunglasses, and just like, scared."
After taking a break from acting post-2016, Taylor recently made a comeback with a role in the 2022 Netflix comedy Home Team, telling People that the break "made sense" for him at that time.
"I started acting from when I was a child, and it was kind of nonstop until I was in my early to mid twenties," he said. "I'm super thankful for what I did experience, but I did miss out on a lot of just normal-life things, like going to college. I wanted to take a step back and enjoy life and spend some time with my family and friends. And I met my [then fiancée] out of it, so it all worked out."
Interestingly, Taylor's resurgence coincided with a new generation of Twilight fans, thanks to the series' arrival on Netflix.
"Before that, to be honest, it was mainly the 'Twi-moms' that would still stop me in the streets," he noted. "It's like teenagers again."
But would he ever reprise the role of Jacob Black? As Taylor previously told E! News, he'd be down.
"He's a good character that is easy to love," he shared exclusively in August 2022. "So, I would never say no to that."