1
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- Can you handle horror films?

2
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No.

3
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No, I don't watch horror movies.

4
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I couldn't even tell you one,

5
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but it was great working
with Robert Eggers.

6
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That film is gonna scare
the (beep) out of you.

7
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It will scare the living
(beep) out of you.

8
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Hey, it's Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

9
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I'm here with "Esquire"

10
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in this insane castle in
the middle of an island,

11
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and "Esquire" has asked
me to explain some things.

12
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So I'll try and do my best to
explain some things. (laughs)

13
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(upbeat music)

14
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Who can walk on their
hands longer, you or Sam?

15
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I can, me.

16
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To give Sam her credit,

17
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Sam's actually upside down more

18
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than I'm upside down actually.

19
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In the mornings, I'll be
dancing round the kitchen

20
00:00:47,070 --> 00:00:48,240
for the most part.

21
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We have quite a bit of a
morning dance off most mornings.

22
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Sam's most likely upside down

23
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up against a wall somewhere on her head.

24
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You have a good jump.

25
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Explain the vertical skill.

26
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I don't know, it comes from a sort of

27
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like a dance background,
I guess, you know?

28
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There's a lot of speculation

29
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on whether there's a trampoline
or not, but there's not.

30
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There was a reason why.

31
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I'll tell you what, it's funny.

32
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I was in Prague.

33
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I thought I'd do a sort
of series of jumps,

34
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and I did my first one,

35
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and I jumped really high, but nobody knows

36
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that when I landed, I
literally tweaked my knee.

37
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I tweaked my knee, and I
was like hobbling around.

38
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I couldn't jump.

39
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And I was like, damn, I
have like five more jumps

40
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I wanted to do, but everyone was like,

41
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"I don't believe you jumped there.

42
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"That's Photoshop."

43
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And I'm like, "It's not."

44
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How did it feel the first time

45
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you saw yourself in this campaign?

46
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Truth be told, I have four daughters,

47
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all of which just rips dad to pieces.

48
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So, (laughs) my youngest daughter said,

49
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"Dad, you look like a posh dancer

50
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"who thinks they are like
amazing, but really they're not."

51
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You're never gonna be
cool when you're just dad.

52
00:02:02,100 --> 00:02:04,170
You are in peak performance shape.

53
00:02:04,170 --> 00:02:05,940
What's your training regime look like?

54
00:02:05,940 --> 00:02:07,290
I'm actually really fortunate

55
00:02:07,290 --> 00:02:09,750
I found out an incredible
trainer, David Kingsbury,

56
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who trained Hugh Jackman for "Wolverine."

57
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He trained me for this.

58
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I'd never been in such crazy shape.

59
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It was extreme.

60
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There was so much discipline behind it.

61
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You don't drink alcohol.

62
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You eat clean.

63
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You know, you're on such
a different sort of regime

64
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that it's such a reset, and it was great.

65
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And then I try and sort of stay

66
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in that kind of somewhere in there.

67
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What was the most surprising
thing you learned working

68
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with Brad Pitt on "Bullet Train?" (laughs)

69
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It's a very funny photo of us.

70
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We had all sorts of ways of doing hearts.

71
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Do you what was interesting on that tour,

72
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he had these beautiful cashmere shirts,

73
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God's Own Cashmere, which I found out

74
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that pretty much everybody had,

75
00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:52,470
but I didn't find that gift in my hotel,

76
00:02:52,470 --> 00:02:55,280
but Joey King, she had a
beautiful cashmere shirt.

77
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Good thing.

78
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,660
What do you love most about farm life?

79
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That's everything to me actually.

80
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There's nothing better than
being kind of like back at home

81
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and out in the countryside.

82
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Kind of keeping busy outside of work,

83
00:03:09,630 --> 00:03:12,120
it's nice to have like
a hobby, to be creative,

84
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to be kind of immersed in something.

85
00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:16,230
It started with like really
enjoying cooking for the family,

86
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and then it was like, well,
actually I wanna learn more

87
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about where those ingredients come from.

88
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And then it's like, well, you know,

89
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the fresher, the better and more organic.

90
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And then it was like, well,
then I started gardening,

91
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and then it was a vegetable garden,

92
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and you start to get
more involved with that.

93
00:03:29,550 --> 00:03:31,020
And then it just got
further and further out.

94
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And now I have pigs.

95
00:03:31,920 --> 00:03:34,260
I'm looking at getting a couple cows.

96
00:03:34,260 --> 00:03:35,093
You know, it's just stuff like that,

97
00:03:35,093 --> 00:03:36,480
but it kind of keeps you busy,

98
00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:38,288
and it's kind of like it's
just a sort of a thing

99
00:03:38,288 --> 00:03:40,140
that's for you, you know?

100
00:03:40,140 --> 00:03:43,200
Tom Ford personally shaved
Aaron Taylor-Johnson's

101
00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,210
Golden Globe winning mutton chops.

102
00:03:45,210 --> 00:03:47,250
Tom is so particular.

103
00:03:47,250 --> 00:03:48,810
He's got such an eye for detail,

104
00:03:48,810 --> 00:03:50,520
and he knows exactly what he wants,

105
00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:51,840
and that's kind of the beauty of Tom

106
00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,450
is that like there's structure and form,

107
00:03:54,450 --> 00:03:57,870
and I think he just wanted
to kind of craft the look.

108
00:03:57,870 --> 00:04:01,050
And I was so open to him just doing that

109
00:04:01,050 --> 00:04:02,700
because I like playing characters,

110
00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:04,410
and I like when you when
you jump onto something,

111
00:04:04,410 --> 00:04:08,550
and you get to start to shed
yourself and then just start

112
00:04:08,550 --> 00:04:10,900
to sort of put together
these other characters.

113
00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:13,418
It doesn't really matter
how you kind of find it.

114
00:04:13,418 --> 00:04:15,750
Like you can start from
the physical aspect

115
00:04:15,750 --> 00:04:19,050
all the way through to like
the psychological aspects

116
00:04:19,050 --> 00:04:21,089
of your character, but
they sort of kind of merge

117
00:04:21,089 --> 00:04:22,170
at the same time.

118
00:04:22,170 --> 00:04:25,140
How do you get into the
mindset of a psychopath?

119
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Like anything, you're doing
your research, aren't you?

120
00:04:26,850 --> 00:04:28,950
And then you're just
absorbing and soaking up,

121
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and you're being a sponge for all of that.

122
00:04:30,982 --> 00:04:35,190
And then you want to, you know,
adopt some of those nuances

123
00:04:35,190 --> 00:04:37,830
and these bad habits and things like that

124
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and then sort of bring them
out and play with them on set.

125
00:04:40,590 --> 00:04:44,010
So yeah, it was just a very
toxic mindset you gotta be in.

126
00:04:44,010 --> 00:04:46,860
If you had to have dinner
with one of your characters,

127
00:04:46,860 --> 00:04:48,570
who would you choose and why?

128
00:04:48,570 --> 00:04:49,890
So I got "Kraven the Hunter" here.

129
00:04:49,890 --> 00:04:52,170
I got Lieutenant Ford from "Godzilla."

130
00:04:52,170 --> 00:04:53,520
Isaac, "The Wall," no.

131
00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:55,350
Ray Marcus, absolutely not.

132
00:04:55,350 --> 00:04:58,470
Friedrich Harding from
"Nosferatu," I just played,

133
00:04:58,470 --> 00:05:01,590
he'd be quite a laugh for dinner actually.

134
00:05:01,590 --> 00:05:03,210
He'd be quite a laugh for dinner.

135
00:05:03,210 --> 00:05:04,590
What's the most surprising
thing you learned

136
00:05:04,590 --> 00:05:06,900
about John Lennon while
playing him in "Nowhere Boy?"

137
00:05:06,900 --> 00:05:09,000
What was kind of
interesting about that story

138
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,150
was the impact of what rock and roll

139
00:05:12,150 --> 00:05:16,440
and what Elvis sort of inhabited
like this effect on women.

140
00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:18,780
And I think in this story,
we was kind of playing

141
00:05:18,780 --> 00:05:21,660
with the themes of these
maternal figures around him.

142
00:05:21,660 --> 00:05:23,220
He was living with his aunt Mimi,

143
00:05:23,220 --> 00:05:25,110
but he sort of discovered
his mother a bit late,

144
00:05:25,110 --> 00:05:27,600
but she was into rock and
roll, and then he saw Elvis,

145
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,180
and he saw this effect
that he had on women.

146
00:05:30,180 --> 00:05:32,040
It was like, okay, I want that attention,

147
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:33,300
but not from everybody else.

148
00:05:33,300 --> 00:05:35,100
All he wanted was the attention

149
00:05:35,100 --> 00:05:37,350
from, you know, that
one person, his mother.

150
00:05:37,350 --> 00:05:39,570
What's a cheat day look like for you?

151
00:05:39,570 --> 00:05:41,010
Lots of pizza, man.

152
00:05:41,010 --> 00:05:42,000
Pizza and pasta.

153
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:43,146
On the day of wrap of "Kraven,"

154
00:05:43,146 --> 00:05:45,030
I had a pizza truck turn up,

155
00:05:45,030 --> 00:05:47,296
and we all just munched on pizza.

156
00:05:47,296 --> 00:05:48,510
That's good.

157
00:05:48,510 --> 00:05:49,758
The character Kraven is one

158
00:05:49,758 --> 00:05:52,440
of Spider-Man's notorious villains.

159
00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:53,880
He's quite a big dude.

160
00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:55,920
I remember looking at the comic books

161
00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:57,810
and thinking his arm's really, really big,

162
00:05:57,810 --> 00:05:59,820
but also, you know, it's
his stomach as well,

163
00:05:59,820 --> 00:06:01,230
which is a bit of a contradiction really,

164
00:06:01,230 --> 00:06:03,000
because if you want to put on some size,

165
00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,910
you've gotta eat a lot, but
you're not really gonna end up

166
00:06:05,910 --> 00:06:07,440
with a washboard stomach.

167
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:09,120
So that was quite tricky,

168
00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:10,230
but I did train really hard,

169
00:06:10,230 --> 00:06:12,840
spent, you know a good six
months training really hard

170
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:15,690
to put on size, so I had
that kind of physicality

171
00:06:15,690 --> 00:06:16,590
for this character.

172
00:06:16,590 --> 00:06:19,680
Also, the action side of
things is really agile,

173
00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:21,840
so, you know, I really
wanted to show his movement.

174
00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:24,660
His technical sort of
skillset is that he tracks

175
00:06:24,660 --> 00:06:25,666
and hunts down his prey.

176
00:06:25,666 --> 00:06:29,310
So, you know, that's really important.

177
00:06:29,310 --> 00:06:30,960
What seems really interesting, I mean,

178
00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,960
it is something that inherently is a part

179
00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,840
of the character and the
introduction to Kraven

180
00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:38,580
in this movie.

181
00:06:38,580 --> 00:06:42,150
So, I think it's really
interesting how Kraven's connection

182
00:06:42,150 --> 00:06:46,200
to his iconic lion vest
is in the comic books.

183
00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,120
So I think we wanna stay true and integral

184
00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:51,510
to the comic books, and, you
know, it's really important

185
00:06:51,510 --> 00:06:54,600
to give the comic book
fans what they've seen

186
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:58,080
and grown up with and try
and translate that to cinema.

187
00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,630
So, that took some really a lot of time

188
00:07:00,630 --> 00:07:03,960
and thought into how we
would get to that place.

189
00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:04,793
Oh, that was it.

190
00:07:04,793 --> 00:07:05,626
Thanks for watching.

191
00:07:05,626 --> 00:07:08,323
All right, cheers. (laughs)