Taylor Lautner and his wife, Taylor Lautner, have a podcast called The Squeeze with Taylor Lautner & Taylor Lautner. That feels like a missed opportunity on the title, they really should have workshopped that more. Anyway, Taylor the wife asked Taylor the husband if there was a point in his life he’d like to redo. T1 (only because I knew of him first) said that if he could go back, it would be to the 2009 VMAs, when Kayne West stole Taylor Swift’s moment at the microphone while accepting her award. For anyone who possibly doesn’t know, Tay-Tay (just to keep them straight) won the VMA for Best Female Video. She and T1 were dating at the time and he, coincidentally (?) presented the award to her on stage. Kayne came on stage, grabbed the mic, and told the world Beyoncé should have won instead. Although he was right, he was also an @ss and this was a terrible thing to do. T1 told T2 he didn’t realize until it was too late this wasn’t a bit between Tay-Tay and Kanye.
Taylor Lautner reflected on his failure to defend ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift, as Kanye West infamously stormed the stage at the 2009 VMAs. When asked by his wife Taylor Dome during a recent podcast episode of The Squeeze With Taylor Lautner & Taylor Lautner what moment in life he would go back to if he could, the Twilight icon got straight to the point. “Probably the 2009 VMAs, when I presented the award to Taylor,” he said thoughtfully. “And was unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit.”
“So I gave her the award, I took five steps back, and was standing five feet behind her,” he explained. And in the middle of her giving her thank you speech, Kanye jumps up onto the stage. I can barely hear it, I can’t see them. I’m just assuming that this whole thing was a practiced and rehearsed skit. Because why else would Kanye West be jumping up on the stage and interrupting Taylor Swift? It just didn’t make sense.
Lautner even admitted that at one point, he laughed at the spectacle, thinking it was all a joke. “If you look back at it, I’m actually caught like laughing, giggling at him. ‘I can’t hear them, but this is probably really funny right now,’” he quipped. The moment of recognition came quickly, however. “The second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time, I was like, ‘oh…that wasn’t good.’”
First of all, credit to T1 for bringing up his inertia in the moment. I remember those shots of him laughing now that he mentions it. I think T1 is a pretty decent guy, so I believe he was just clueless and not playing into Kayne’s bs. I’m surprised he would think his *girlfriend* would plan such an elaborate bit without cluing him into the joke ahead of time, but maybe he thought the VMAs made her swear silence on the matter. I also believe that nobody really knew what to do in that moment. Even if he had figured it out, what was T1 going to do, wrestle the mic away from Kanye? The man had just taken the stage away from America’s Sweetheart, he wasn’t giving that moment up. And T1 was 17 years old at the time. I wouldn’t have had the wherewithal at 17 to know what to do.
Could you imagine the moment when T1 saw Tay-Tay’s face on stage and realized what is actually happening? Again, between the shock of what was going on and the emotional response of someone you love having their moment stolen, T1 was likely paralyzed. Don’t get me wrong, I know that moment was about Tay-Tay. I can imagine it was also difficult for T1 to try to figure out how to come to Tay-Tay’s aid in front of the cameras like that. But that’s why I defend T1’s answer about wishing he’d done something. I don’t think it’s a white knight response or a man needing to help a defenseless female issue. I think he saw her in pain and wishes, as someone who cared about her, that he could have done something to support her better. I get it.
Photo credit: Avalon, Getty Images, Cover Images and Backgrid
Pretty amazing how Taylor’s dated two other Taylors. You don’t see other androgynously named actors doing that. Blake Lively never managed that.
I’d’ve named that podcast something with a pun in it. Off the Cuff with the Taylors Lautner maybe.
I’m kind of thrown by that myself, LOL. I wonder if one of them goes by a nickname with family or something, because I imagine saying “No, the other Taylor” all the time would get old fast!
I also have no memory of him dating Swift.
Lol ‘We’re gonna flip a coin to decide which one of you gets to be Tay and the other one’s going by Lor from now on’
I know a Shannon/Shannon couple, collectively known as the Shannons.
It must happen more than I initially believed!
My uncle, oldest golden child and a bit narcissistic, married someone w the feminine version of his name think Michael / Michaela.
Weird and yet completely in line with narcissism!
I felt so bad about that incident especially when Taylor said she was pretty affected by that incident because she had no idea that they were booing Kanye at that time, she thought that they were booing her so I understand lautner’s feelings on that-especially once her documentary came out. Will love Beyoncé for letting her have her moment later on in the show.
It’s not comfortable to admit, but Kanye actually did turn out to be the worse person in the Taylor/Kanye feud. A lot of people never would have guessed he’d turn out to be this awful.
” A lot of people never would have guessed he’d turn out to be this awful.”
Hmmmm. Not sure about that. I would venture a lot more people saw what he was (see Obama, for instance, and about a billion Swifties).
Sometimes people don’t know how to react when someone does something crazy. As I remember, Beyonce had a kind of wtf-is-happening?-smile as well.
We shouldn’t blame people for how they react to unpleasant sudden weirdness.
On a side note, I see it happens a lot when a guy does something unpleasant/socially awkward and everyone is like: “why didn’t SHE react in a better way?”
Well, she is still processing what’s going on. Let’s focus on blaming the person who did the unpleasant thing: HIM
I’m pleasantly surprised at what a solid man he has grown into. A lit of his, more mature, colleagues don’t have these points of regrets
Trauma responses are fight, flight, freeze or fawn. That goes for in the moment stuff too – it’s surprising how many people think they would do all kinds of action hero, chivalrous stuff but actually freeze in the moment.
I totally get why T1 would have regrets but at the same time, what was he supposed to do?
Years ago some friends of mine were doing a night trip on the amazon in open boats, they were close to a river bank and what they thought were logs were actually alligators (crocodiles?). One of them then climbed into the boat with its front legs and Paul pushed Mary in front of him. She reacted without thinking and started hitting it with a paddle and she said after the only thought that really registered was that she might lose a hand but it would be worth it.
You never know until it happens.
Some years ago (I was late 30’s) I sat in on a training session a supplier was running for my company and a group of leaders she had been working with for a while. In a wash up meeting after one of the senior men really started to lay into her and in the moment I didn’t defend her. It was so weird, I saw and heard it all but my brain couldn’t quite accept that was I was hearing was real. I spoke to her after he left and she was very shaken up and almost crying. It took me a 1.5 hour drive back after to really start to process what I’d witnessed – and start to feel shaky myself – and it was the next day that I went to my boss and got the ball rolling on some consequences for him. I still feel bad for not saying anything when he started to get out of line. None of the men around the table said anything either.
So yeah, in addition to thinking this was pre-planned (because it was so unexpected and out of line otherwise) I can totally understand him not reacting in the moment and feeling bad later. No shame on him.
I think this story is super cute and wholesome! awww. sounds like he was a good boyfriend. I can only imagine how he felt when he saw her face. kind of like when Will Smith saw Jada’s face you know when.
this was my first inkling of Kanye being a jackass (to quote president Obama). TS used to get a lot of flack on here but how anyone could be unsympathetic to her when this happened, idk. she was seventeen! I’d have probably started crying if something like that had happened to me at 17.
I had forgotten about this because I don’t follow either Taylor Swift or Kayne West and am glad I’m not the only one who sees some similarities to the Will Smith/Chris Rock incident. I’m not defending Will but wonder if a younger Will would have remained frozen after seeing Jada’s expression or what an older Taylor Lautner would have done.
That’s life right? There are times I wish I would have reacted immediately and times I wish I would have paused.