“New Moon” hottie Taylor Lautner has achieved the dream of every rock and roll singer and actor in the past half century. He’s got his picture on the cover of Rolling Stone.
“New Moon,” which co-stars Robert Pattinson, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart, is in theaters now and doing land office business.
The iconic magazine’s honor was immortalized in the 1972 song by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, which raised the cover shot to the ultimate goal of rock stars everywhere.
- Well we are big rock singers, we’ve got golden fingers
And we’re loved everywhere we go
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten thousand dollars a show
We take all kind of pills to give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we’ve never known
Is the thrill that’ll get you when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
Lautner, who covers the most recent issue, is the undisputed star of the latest “Twilight” sequel, which shattered at least two box office records over the weekend and had the third biggest opening in movie history.
Final box office figures for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” put the movie’s ticket sales at $142.8 million up from an estimated $140.7 million last weekend, Summit Entertainment said.
“New Moon” marked the biggest opening weekend of 2009 and placed third for the top opening weekend ever behind last year’s Batman movie “The Dark Knight” ($158 million) and 2007’s “Spider-Man 3″ ($151 million).
“New Moon” also set a record on Friday for box office results from midnight screenings, with $26.3 million.
The movie rode squarely on Lautner’s shoulders and the 17-year-old did not disappoint the saga’s largely tween and young female audience.
Whenever Lautner, 17, appeared shirtless on the movie screen, girls in theaters across the nation squealed with delight.
Lautner, who famously gained 30 pounds of muscle to play hulking werewolf Jacob Black, wowed viewers with his rippling 8-pack abs and muscular torso. All the work the athletic teen put into his workout regimen appears to have paid off on-screen.
Indeed, Rob recently revealed how unsettling it was to see Lautner’s super-buff physique.
“It was incredibly annoying when I saw Taylor’s transformation,” Pattinson recently said on the “Jimmy Kimmel Show.”
“I realized just having a pre-pubescent girl’s body wasn’t going to work for me anymore. In fact, I saw him and thought ‘Jesus, I’m going to get fired,’ ” he said.
Taylor recently revealed that he carried around plastic baggies filled with meat and potatoes to eat around the clock in order to gain weight for New Moon.
“Yeah, so I carry around a Baggie and it has meat patties in it,” he said. “The worst is not the patties. It’s the sweet potatoes. They get raw and cold and gushy.”
In addition to eating every two hours, Lautner did intense weight training and isometric exercises to get his enviable 8-pack and ripped torso.
For now, the young star is enjoying his newfound star status and is working hard. As for the future, the baby-faced Taylor would like to do more action roles.
“I love action films,” he said. “I’d love to do an action drama. I’m always looking to give my character something action-oriented to do.”
In a wide ranging interview with the magazine, Lautner offered these insights about Bella and Jacob.
When your character hangs up on Edward inNew Moon, it sets off the whole chain of events that almost lead to a major tragedy. That’s something a villain would do.
Yes. that is part of Jacob’s character. He can’t really control himself. When he gets mad, he gets mad. And all Jacob has on his mind is on Bella. That’s who he cares for. That’s who he loves. If somebody gets in his way, it’s not good. And he will explode. So I guess you could see that either way.
[Bella] even says she loves you.
That’s why Eclipse was actually my favorite of the series. It’s the height of the love triangle. I think it’s going to be good. That tent scene is the biggest thing possible. She’s cold and I’m hot, so [since vampires are cold], are you going to let me crawl in the sleeping bag with her, or are you just going to let her die?
Why do you think Jacob and Edward likes Bella so much?
Because she’s different, meaning she’s more of the plain Jane type. You know, she’s not fake. I know that attracts me too. Just somebody who is down to earth and themselves. I mean, apparently Edward likes her smell. But Jacob’s relationship with her is — Jacob has just always liked her. They used to be friends because their fathers are best friends. And he’s just always had a crush on her since he was a kid. Now they are getting to that stage where things can start.
For more, check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone.
