Taylor-Johnson: 30 Years In, Still Learning to Act
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- Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who began acting at age 6 in a London stage production of 'Macbeth,' tells IndieWire that after nearly three decades in the industry, he's only now feeling like he 'might actually be an actor'
- He stars as Major Will Tranter in David Mackenzie's 'Fuze,' described as a fast-paced heist film built around a WWII bomb discovered in central London that may be a decoy for a larger operation
- Taylor-Johnson has been actively reuniting with directors he's worked with before, including Robert Eggers on the upcoming 'Werwulf,' Tom Ford on 'Cry to Heaven,' David Leitch on an unnamed project, and Mackenzie on 'Fuze' after 'The Outlaw King'
- He prepared for the bomb-defusing role by consulting a real explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialist, saying the toe-dip into that world 'really, well, sparked him'
- He has four daughters and says he will not take any work from May through the end of June so he can be home while one prepares for her GCSEs, calling that boundary something that 'feeds my soul'
- He and wife Sam Taylor-Johnson previously co-wrote the 2018 adaptation of James Frey's memoir 'A Million Little Pieces,' which Sam directed and Aaron starred in
- He criticized how his wife and other female directors get asked about motherhood on press tours, saying he wants to 'nurture and support and encourage' her career without 'dim[ming] her light'
Why it matters: Taylor-Johnson is using the 'Fuze' press tour to reposition himself from action-franchise face (Kraven the Hunter, Bullet Train, 28 Years Later) to a relationship-driven craftsman, explicitly citing the De Niro–Scorsese, Pitt–Fincher, and Nolan–repeat-star models as his template. With queued projects from Eggers, Ford, and Leitch, his stated preference for second- and third-time director pairings signals a deliberate career pivot. His rare male-star admission of turning down work for his daughter's GCSEs also stands out in a press ecosystem that, as he notes, routinely asks his director wife about motherhood instead of her work.
