A fearlessly uncompromising floriental fragrance with notes of cool citrus and wild chamomile, descending to reveal an outrageously short hem of white freesia and peony grounded by the captivating and mysterious femininity of patchouli, cool amber and musk.
The actor is starring in an interactive new web series called Aim High, in which he plays teenager Nick Green, who is a high schooler by day and a U.S. spy by night. But the twist here isn’t that Rathbone’s character is leading a double life, it’s that viewers will, quite literally, be able to get in on the action.
There’s Something Taylor Lautner doesn’t want to talk about. He’s biting his nails. He’s having trouble making eye contact. He’s looking down at the table. And then there’s the nervous laughter, the kind that betrays a young man ill at ease.
“Oh boy,” he says.
Lautner is dressed in skinny dark jeans and lived-in black boots. His check flannel shirt is spread wide, revealing what appears to be the 19-year-old actor’s very first crop of chest hair. His smile is Cruise-like, packed with the kind of porcelain that has never been stained by a lick of red wine. Lautner is flashing those teeth, shifting in his chair, because he’s uncomfortable.
We’re sitting down to lunch at L’Ermitage, a swank hotel in Beverly Hills that Lautner likes for its privacy. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows your name, but pretends they’ve never seen your face. He needs that, these days, that kind of protection. Because Twilight’s Jacob Black — the teen wolf — is mobbed wherever he goes.
“It comes down to what kind of mood you’re in,” he says. “You have to make a decision before you go out: are you willing to sign autographs and take pictures, say hello and meet new people?”
Is it upsetting?
“I wouldn’t say I get upset about it. I asked for this,” he says. “It gets frustrating. But during that frustration you say, ‘OK. Why am I frustrated? I’m doing what I love.’ But sometimes you really just want to go do whatever you want to do.”
Losing your anonymity sure pays well. $7.5 million was what Lautner — now officially the highest-paid teenager in Hollywood — made for his current thriller Abduction, about a high-school student who finds his baby photo on a missing-persons website the same night he watches his parents get killed. The film is his first as a leading man and comes without that built-in Team Jacob fan base, but he’s already had a pay rise. He’s expected to earn $10 million for the time-travel film Incarceron, in development now. (Blake Lively, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson have all reportedly met with producers about playing the female lead).
