WHILE British star Robert Pattinson continues to dominate the web-chat with his performance of moody vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight triology, muscular Taylor Lautner’s profile has grown more steadily. As Eclipse, the third instalment in the saga based on the series of bestselling books by Stephenie Meyer, is released next week, he is somewhat in awe of the Australian fan who had his signature turned into a tattoo on her arm.

“When fans don’t have a book or sheet of paper, they want you to sign their arm.

So I get to this arm that has a massive Wolfpack tattoo on it. I was like ‘Wow, that’s dedication’ and she goes ‘Yeah, can you sign it right here?’ The next day it was all over the internet that this girl had my signature.”

Twilight follows the fortunes of a love triangle between vampire Edward, who refuses to drink human blood, werewolf Jacob Black and the object of their affection, human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).

On Friday, cinema-goers will see the rivalry come to a head, as Bella has to choose between the mysterious Edward and the reliable Jacob.

The back-story is that we simple humans are pretty unaware of the long battle between vampires and werewolves, who have sworn to kill any vampires who feed off humans.

But the uneasy truce in the town of Forks is about to be tested.

“This film is definitely going to be darker.

We’ve got werewolves and vampires fully involved now,” says Lautner.

With Edward having to keep his distance from Bella to protect her, Jacob gets to spend more time with her – and there’s a scene where they listen to his father, leader of the Quileute tribe, telling stories around the campfire.

“Bella’s a lot closer with the pack now, even though she’s a vampire girl. We’ve invited her into the pack and accept her for who she is,” says Lautner.

As the pair bond, there’s a kissing scene. “People think it would be more awkward because Kristen and I are so close. I felt it was easier because we’re such good friends. It was exciting that Jacob finally had his chance to kiss Bella for the first time. He’s had to sit back and watch her and Edward kiss for the whole first two movies,” he says.

Unlike his co-star Robert Pattinson, who trained to do stunts as a wolf, Lautner explains that his fight scenes were created using CGI after filming.

“I didn’t do the fight training that Robert had to do, which was a bummer because I would have enjoyed it. The only action I had was where I carry Bella through the forest. I have four pages of dialogue, so there was a rig set up to carry her for me, so I could focus on the scene.

“But I showed up to work that day and they were like, ‘The rig doesn’t work’. I was like ‘OK, I’ll carry her, she’s like 110 pounds, that can’t be too hard’. Twelve hours later, my arms were burning. Whoever said acting is not hard work.”

He also admits that it’s tough filming fight scenes with Robert Pattinson.

“The number one goal of this film is to hate Edward. Rob and I are good friends and he’s a ridiculously nice guy, so we ruin plenty of takes because we can’t keep a straight face.” Lautner says the Twilight franchise has “changed everything”

explaning: “I like what comes with it, which is the work. It allows me to make movies and that’s what I love to do.”

FAR from letting the success and adoring fans go to his head, he manages to keep his feet firmly on the ground. “I describe it as I live two different lives. I have Twilight, this acting life and I have the same life I had before. I spend time with the same people, I do the same boring things and I think that’s what’s important, maintaining that life that you had before.

“The weirdest thing about this whole experience is we’re still baffled by it. When we were filming Twilight, we were making a lower budget movie that we were passionate about, we didn’t know if anybody was going to want to see it. We were just happy to have a job, so the fact that it has led to this, I can’t even soak it all in.”

■ The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is released in cinemas on Friday.

■ Taylor Lautner’s next film is an action thriller called Abduction and then he films the next two Twilight films: Breaking Dawn, Part 1&2.