Aaron Taylor-Johnson gave a rare interview where he spoke extensively about his relationship and kids with director Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Aaron was 18 when he met Sam, then 41, while auditioning for the biopic Nowhere Boy in 2008. Aaron ended up proposing a year "to the minute" after they met. They welcomed their daughters in 2010 and in 2012, the year they got married.
In a new interview with Esquire, Aaron, now 33, talked about coparenting Sam's children from her previous marriage as well. “Teenagers, man,” he said. “I’ve got teenagers.”
When the conversation turned to his career, Aaron explained that wanting to be with his family was a reason he didn't pursue staying with blockbuster franchises at the time. “In my opinion, the actor that goes job to job becomes fucking boring,” he explained. I’m sure people dream of that. If this is what you want to do, that’s great. It doesn’t feed my soul. I enjoy the normality of things, the everyday stuff. Getting my kids ready in the mornings, taking them to school and activities — that’s plenty. That feeds my soul.”
“There was Kick-Ass and then there was Godzilla and Avengers, and all those things lined up for me. But I didn’t really care for them," he continued, noting that there were roles “that nobody knows about — big, huge franchises that were in play.”
"[But] I wanted, purely, to be with my babies,” Aaron said. “I didn’t want to be taken away from them. I battled with what that would be like.”
In retrospect, he said, "I would say I was probably not ready to be in that position anyway — it was too early. But yeah, I also slightly didn’t give a fuck.”
When it comes to his relationship with Sam, he denied that it works because a creative partnership underpins it: "I don’t think that’s accurate. Yeah, we worked — I met Sam as actor and director. I think we’re really great at collaborating. But that’s not why I fell in love with her.”
Instead, Aaron chalks it up to a gut instinct. Similarly, he said that he knew when he was 10 or 11 that he would have kids, saying, “I was going to have a big family. I knew I was going to be a young father. I knew I was going to have many kids.”
As for talking about his family any further, he said, “I’m trying to be as honest as possible. [...] I’ve probably talked to you more about my kids and Sam than I have with anybody. I’ve got really nothing to hide, and I’m secure in what we have. But I’m not going to unlock things that are actually precious to me.”
