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Taylor Lautner says he regrets 'laughing' when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's 2009 VMAs speech and thought it was a 'skit'

Feb 2, 2023, 18:03 IST
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Taylor Lautner said he thought Kanye West's interruption at the 2009 VMA Awards was a "rehearsed skit."David Becker/Getty Images, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images
  • Taylor Lautner has opened up about the infamous 2009 VMAs moment between Taylor Swift and Ye.
  • Lautner was dating Swift at the time and said he was "unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit."
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Taylor Lautner is reflecting on the awkward position he found himself in over a decade ago when he presented his girlfriend at the time, Taylor Swift, with a VMA, and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, interrupted her acceptance speech.

Speaking on the podcast "The Squeeze" he co-hosts with his wife — also called Taylor Lautner, previously Taylor Dome — the "Twilight" star got candid when he was asked which moment in his life he would choose to go back to if he could.

"Probably the 2009 VMAs," he said, explaining that he was "unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit."

The whole incident went down after the then-19-year-old Swift won the best music video by a female artist award for "You Belong with Me."

After the "Lavender Haze" singer got up on stage, hugged Lautner and co-presenter Shakira, and began giving her acceptance speech, Ye rushed the stage and infamously declared: "I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time."

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The actor recalled his experience of the evening, saying: "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."

"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?" he continued. "It just didn't make sense."

Lautner admitted that the only reason he appears to be "laughing and giggling at it," is because he really couldn't hear what was being said.

Kanye West jumped onstage as Taylor Swift accepted her award for the "Best Female Video" award during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on September 13, 2009.Christopher Polk/Getty Images

However, Lautner said it dawned on him that the stage crash was not a planned joke when he was finally able to see Swift's facial expression after the whole debacle was over.

"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,'" said the actor.

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"It's okay you, you made up for it in your opening monologue on 'SNL,'" his wife said, referencing Lautner's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" four months later in December 2009 in which he joked that he "could have done a little more."

"What I really wanted to do that night was this," he told audiences on the sketch show, before demonstrating impressive martial arts moves on a mannequin dressed up as Ye.

As for Swift, the incident with Ye marked the beginning of a decade-long feud between the two artists, that was briefly patched up in 2015 but reignited the following year when Ye released his song "Famous," in which he referred to Swift as "that bitch" and took credit for her fame.

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