Before Kellan Lutz became a household name in the Twilight franchise, he was just a college student who suddenly decided to drop everything and try his luck in Hollywood.
And according to the actor, his mom wasn’t exactly thrilled with the decision — at least not at first.
Lutz recently opened up about the early days of his acting career during an appearance on Obsessed: The Podcast, revealing that his family was skeptical when he left college to pursue acting.
“If I could tell you a little secret, my mom did not like that I threw college away to pursue this acting thing,” Lutz said.
The actor had been studying chemical engineering at Chapman University when he made the unexpected choice at 19 to move to Los Angeles and try acting — even though he admits he barely knew anything about the industry.
“I just moved to L.A. and started pursuing this fun thing called ‘acting.’ I had no idea what acting was,” he joked.
But everything changed when he landed a role on HBO’s comedy series The Comeback, starring Friends icon Lisa Kudrow.
As soon as Lutz’s mom heard who he’d be working with, her attitude completely shifted.
“She found out that Lisa M.F. Kudrow was on this show,” Lutz said, laughing.
The actor played Chris McNess on the series — a young sitcom star working alongside Kudrow’s character Valerie Cherish on the fictional show-within-a-show Room & Bored.
Lutz said one of his favorite moments on the show came when Kudrow’s character stood up for him when network executives threatened to replace the younger cast members.
“When you do have the weight that you can swing around, it’s sort of an honor to step in for the little guys,” Lutz said.
That early role helped launch his career and soon opened the door to bigger opportunities in Hollywood.
One of his first major film roles came in the movie Stick It, where he worked alongside Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges.
Lutz said Bridges gave him a piece of advice that stuck with him throughout his career.
“Don’t make the industry your life,” Bridges told him. “Make your life outside the industry, because the industry’s always looking to chew you up and spit you out.”
Lutz said he has always tried to hold on to advice from actors who came before him.
More than two decades after joining The Comeback, Lutz’s career has taken him far beyond that first big role.
He went on to star as Emmett Cullen in all five Twilight movies and later appeared in action films alongside big names like Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford in The Expendables 3.
Now, The Comeback is returning for a long-awaited third season, which premieres March 22 on HBO Max.
Lutz said his own real-life career helped shape the direction of his character in the new season.
“I loved doing action movies, and I did so many,” he said. “That became ‘Kellan Lutz: Action Star,’ just like Chris McNess. Art imitating life.”
For Lutz, the return to the show that helped launch his career feels like a full-circle moment.
And it’s also the project that once convinced his mom he had made the right choice after all.