Taylor Lautner Thought Taylor Swift’s 2009 VMAs Interruption Was A “Skit”

Many forget that the infamous VMAs moment — of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s speech — is a tale of two Taylors. Swift’s ex-beau, Twilight star Taylor Lautner, was the presenter of the award. And he’s finally sharing what he thought was going on from his POV. (Spoiler: the word “skit” was used.)

In the Feb. 1 episode of The Squeeze, Lautner’s podcast with his wife, Taylor Dome, he shared which career moment he’d like to relive. “Probably the 2009 VMAs when I presented the award to Taylor,” he said because apparently, the actor misinterpreted what was going down on stage. “[I] was unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit.”

A recap: Lautner presented his then-girlfriend with the Best Female Video award for “You Belong With Me,” and wrapped Swift in a big hug when she came up on stage. And in the middle of Swift’s acceptance speech, West came and took the mic from her. “Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” the “Heartless” rapper declared on stage. It would go down to be one of the most infamous moments in VMA history — and would kick off a longstanding feud between the two musicians.

Lautner and the “Anti-Hero” singer co-starred in the 2009 film Valentine’s Day, as uber-in-love high school students. They continued their romance off-screen and briefly dated from August until December of that year. On the podcast, Lautner recalled that they had just gone public with their relationship during the VMAs, which made it all the more awkward. “And I presented the award to her, so I gave her the award [and] I took five steps back and was standing five feet behind her,” Lautner told his co-host. “In the middle of giving her thank-you speech, Kanye jumps up onto the stage.”

The Scream Queens star continued, “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, interrupting Taylor Swift? It just didn’t make sense.”

Alas, his epiphany came a little too late. Continuing his story, Lautner said, “He jumped off, she finished [and] the second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh. No, that wasn’t good.’”

Swift wrote about the moment in a diary entry dated Sept. 18, 2009. She wrote, “Ahh… the things that can change in a week. If you had told me that one of the biggest stars in music was going to jump on stage and announce that he thought I shouldn’t have won on live television, I would’ve said, 'That stuff doesn’t really happen in real life,’” she wrote, before adding, “Well… apparently…. it does.”