Aaron Taylor Johnson covers the latest issue of Rolling Stone UK, mostly to talk about Kraven the Hunter and The Fall Guy. In recent days, there were many rumors about how he was just cast as James Bond, rumors which seemed to be jumping the gun a bit (or maybe not – nothing has been confirmed). In any case, he doesn’t confirm anything 007-ish in this interview. He does talk extensively about his wife, Sam Taylor Johnson, whom he met when he was 17-18 and she was in her early 40s. They fell in love, had two daughters and got married very quickly. Currently, Aaron is 33 and Sam is 57. Still together – after living in LA for many years, they moved back to England and bought a farm in the country. Their daughters are almost-14 and 12 years old. Some highlights from Rolling Stone:
Falling for Sam when he was a teenager: “What you gotta realise is that what most people were doing in their twenties, I was doing when I was 13. You’re doing something too quickly for someone else? I don’t understand that. What speed are you supposed to enjoy life at? It’s bizarre to me.” He keeps busy at his farm in Somerset with Sam, with whom he shares “four gorgeous daughters”, as he dotingly refers to them. The eldest are Sam’s from a previous marriage, aged 27 and 17, and then two tweens.
Working on ‘Kraven the Hunter’: “Taking on a Sony / Marvel movie is a different challenge altogether. There’s the story, the character, the role; that’s one thing. But then you also step into a world where you’re dealing with a studio and a franchise — or possible franchises, though let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So, they’re rolling the dice on me, in a sense, which is a lovely thing,” he says. “But you’ve got to appease the studio, please the audience and do what’s dignified for you as an actor. I find all of that super challenging.”
The Bond rumors: “I can only really talk about the things I’m going to show and tell. So, The Fall Guy, Nosferatu, Kraven the Hunter. I’m here to promote those.” When I say it must be flattering to be associated with 007, he stares at me in silence.
Working with Sam again: ‘Sam is actually a great filmmaker and a wonderful storyteller. People will think there’s sort of a bias to me saying it, but I think when they see Back to Black [her upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic], everyone’s going to realise how fantastic a filmmaker she is,” he says emphatically. Of course, he himself has experience being directed by Sam. But he points out that it’s difficult to balance their collaborations with the sense that any perceived or actual criticism of them — as with their film together from 2019, A Million Little Pieces — hurts more keenly. ‘There’s a protectiveness that I feel; I think it’s really difficult. There’s also part of me that feels like if something didn’t work, I’m the one that’s responsible,” he says.
A family man: “People see and perceive this thing around my career, and that’s OK. But I’m just trying to juggle my family and my work. I’m doing normal life; dentist appointments. Career doesn’t necessarily take a back seat, but it takes a different thought behind the choices that you make. But you also discover characters you’re drawn to because of that, you’re not just some 20-year-old anymore. You unlock some secret thing,” he explains. Equally, the reason he hasn’t taken on a television limited series — in spite of good opportunities to do so, he hints — has been the extended amount of time that they would take him away from the family. “I don’t want a jobbing career.”
His daughters’ births: “You realise it’s your job to protect the purest, most innocent thing that’s come into the world. And it’s your duty to be their role model. You are going to be reflected in their choices later on in life, from who their partners are to how they carry themselves in the world.”
“You realise it’s your job to protect the purest, most innocent thing that’s come into the world.” I wonder if he’ll get to a point, when his daughters get to 17-18, where he realizes how f–ked up it was that he got with Sam at that age. He’ll look at his daughters and realize that he doesn’t want those innocent kids in a relationship with some 40-something and the dominoes will start to fall. Who knows though – it could be that Aaron is perfectly happy, especially with his current situation out in the country. Whenever people talk about Sam and Aaron, I always think about some of her comments early in their relationship, where she described him as bringing family values to the table. It feels like the “family farm in Somerset” is HIS fantasy, that’s his idealized family life.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of Rolling Stone UK.