“Probably should’ve said something”: Taylor Lautner Regrets Not Standing Up for Taylor Swift After Kanye West Drove Her to Tears
Taylor Lautner just refreshed the memory of one of the most infamous nights in pop culture history. It was the 2009 VMAs Taylor Swift and Kanye West debacle, and Lautner happened to be dating the Anti-Hero singer at the time. For the unversed, Swift, who was only 19 years old back then, had won the Best Music Video award for her song You Belong With Me. And the award was presented by her then-beau, Lautner and Shakira. She got onstage, hugged both of them, and was about to give her acceptance speech when Ye suddenly got on stage and yanked the mic from her saying, “Taylor I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”
The Famous feud between Swift and West after that night has been, as they say, history. Meanwhile, the Twilight actor has weighed in on the incident after over a decade.
Taylor Lautner initially thought the Kanye West-Taylor Swift debacle was a skit
Taylor Lautner cohosts his podcast The Squeeze with his wife, whose name is also Taylor Lautner, previously Dome, and it was on a recent episode that he opened up about the VMA incident. The missus asked the Tracers actor what was one moment in his life that if he could, he would choose to go back to. And he replied with,
“Probably the 2009 VMAs… [I was] unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit. I presented the award to her so I gave her the award, I took five steps back and was standing five feet behind her. And in the middle of giving her thank-you speech, Kanye jumps up onto the stage.”
He further shared how incredulous he felt by the scene,
“I can barely hear it. I can’t see them. I’m just assuming this whole thing was a practiced and rehearsed skit, because why else would Kanye West be jumping on the stage interrupting Taylor Swift? It just didn’t make sense.”
He then clarified that he could be seen “laughing and giggling at it,” because he couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
Taylor Lautner regretted not standing up for his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift
It was a bit later that he realized it wasn’t a skit or joke. He shared,
“He jumped off. She finished. The second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh. This … that wasn’t good. I probably should have said something.'”
Mrs. Lautner comforted the Abduction actor, “It’s okay you, you made up for it in your opening monologue on ‘SNL.'” This was about Lautner’s Saturday Night Live sketch four months after the VMAs, where he claimed that he “could have done a little more.” During the skit, he said, “What I really wanted to do that night was this,” followed by pretending to beat up a mannequin dressed up as Kanye West.
