Taylor Lautner defends shirtless scenes

Taylor Lautner has insisted that he does not appear shirtless in Twilight for the sake of it.

The 17-year-old actor bulked up for his role as werewolf Jacob Black in New Moon, the latest instalment in the supernatural series.

Discussing the wolf pack's lack of clothing in an interview with E! Online, Lautner insisted: "There's definitely reasons behind it for the film. When we transform, we don't have clothes, we have to go find our clothes. And we're hot, we're 108 degrees.

"So it's not like we're randomly taking our shirts off for no reason."

Lautner recently admitted that he is keen to keep his clothes on in future projects, admitting that he does not want to be known as "just a body".