“When I freak out and I’m really nervous and I black out, I just go straight to backflip,” Lautner told Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’

When Taylor Lautner gets nervous, he does backflips.

In a new interview on The Tonight Show, the actor reflected on his appearance at Taylor Swift’s July Eras Tour stop in Kansas City, Missouri, where he did backflips down the catwalk after the pop superstar premiered her “I Can See You” music video, which he costars in.

The concert at Arrowhead Stadium marked a public reunion for Lautner and Swift, who played a couple in the 2010 movie Valentine’s Day and dated during its filming the year prior. Needless to say, the Twilight star was nervous.

Taylor Lautner; Taylor Swift.

JEFF KRAVITZ/GETTY,  JMENTERNATIONAL/JMENTERNATIONAL FOR BRIT AWARDS/GETTY
“I do this weird thing, and it doesn’t make sense so forgive me, when I freak out and I’m really nervous and I black out, I just go straight to backflip,” said Lautner, 31, recalling the thought process that led him to go full gymnast during the show — a reference to the tumbling his character did in Valentine’s Day.

“I stepped out of this door, and I saw this walkway, and it was like 60 yards down the field. And I’m like, ‘I have to walk down this whole thing? This is going to be so uncomfortable,'” Lautner explained to host Jimmy Fallon. “And I was like, ‘Just backflip, and I’ll take up the space, and it’ll be over.'”

Elsewhere in the interview, he spoke about when Swift, 33, first reached out and asked him to appear in the music video for “I Can See You,” released on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) earlier this year as one of the re-recorded album’s “From the Vault” tracks.

“I was at home. It was like a morning around 9 a.m. I get a call from my manager and he goes, ‘You will never believe who I got a call from this morning.’ And I go, ‘I wouldn’t, so why don’t you tell me?’ And he goes, ‘Taylor Swift’s manager, and she wanted to see if she can get your new updated cell phone number and reach out,’” said Lautner.

He continued, “I was like, ‘OK…did they say what about?’ He’s like, ‘Not really … do you want to talk to your wife [Tay Dome Lautner] about this and make sure this is OK?’ Meanwhile, wife is right in the kitchen there and she’s freaking out, and I go, ‘No, by the signs of it I think she’s gonna be just fine.’ She’s the biggest Swiftie ever, so automatic permission.”

Presley Cash, Taylor Swift, Joey King and Taylor Lautner in Kansas City in July 2023. GETTY

Lautner appeared in the music video alongside Joey King and Presley Cash, both of whom previously acted in Swift’s 2012 music video for the Speak Now track “Mean.” All three stars went on stage together for the video’s premiere at the “Karma” singer’s Kansas City show — but he’s the only one who backflipped his way down the catwalk.

At the time, Swift said of her ex-flame — who inspired Speak Now track “Back to December” — before introducing him onstage, “He was a very positive force in my life when I was making the Speak Now album, and I want to say he did every single stunt that you saw in that music video. He and his wife have become some of my closest friends, and it’s very convenient because we all share the same first name.”

Lautner also shared some kind words for Swift after he walked out, telling her, “I respect you so much. Not just for the singer you are, the songwriter, the performer — but truly for the human you are. You are gracious, humble, kind and I’m honored to know you.”