WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.710
- Can you handle horror films?

00:00:01.710 --> 00:00:03.060
No.

00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.400
No, I don't watch horror movies.

00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.140
I couldn't even tell you one,

00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:09.000
but it was great working
with Robert Eggers.

00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.330
That film is gonna scare
the (beep) out of you.

00:00:12.330 --> 00:00:14.760
It will scare the living
(beep) out of you.

00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:16.320
Hey, it's Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:17.700
I'm here with "Esquire"

00:00:17.700 --> 00:00:20.400
in this insane castle in
the middle of an island,

00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:24.300
and "Esquire" has asked
me to explain some things.

00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:28.462
So I'll try and do my best to
explain some things. (laughs)

00:00:28.462 --> 00:00:31.045
(upbeat music)

00:00:34.230 --> 00:00:37.470
Who can walk on their
hands longer, you or Sam?

00:00:37.470 --> 00:00:39.690
I can, me.

00:00:39.690 --> 00:00:40.920
To give Sam her credit,

00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:42.780
Sam's actually upside down more

00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:44.400
than I'm upside down actually.

00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:47.070
In the mornings, I'll be
dancing round the kitchen

00:00:47.070 --> 00:00:48.240
for the most part.

00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:51.330
We have quite a bit of a
morning dance off most mornings.

00:00:51.330 --> 00:00:52.839
Sam's most likely upside down

00:00:52.839 --> 00:00:55.560
up against a wall somewhere on her head.

00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:56.700
You have a good jump.

00:00:56.700 --> 00:00:58.800
Explain the vertical skill.

00:00:58.800 --> 00:00:59.793
I don't know, it comes from a sort of

00:00:59.793 --> 00:01:02.160
like a dance background,
I guess, you know?

00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:03.675
There's a lot of speculation

00:01:03.675 --> 00:01:07.053
on whether there's a trampoline
or not, but there's not.

00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:09.180
There was a reason why.

00:01:09.180 --> 00:01:10.200
I'll tell you what, it's funny.

00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:11.400
I was in Prague.

00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:14.550
I thought I'd do a sort
of series of jumps,

00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:16.590
and I did my first one,

00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:18.840
and I jumped really high, but nobody knows

00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.753
that when I landed, I
literally tweaked my knee.

00:01:21.753 --> 00:01:25.075
I tweaked my knee, and I
was like hobbling around.

00:01:25.075 --> 00:01:26.100
I couldn't jump.

00:01:26.100 --> 00:01:28.530
And I was like, damn, I
have like five more jumps

00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:30.727
I wanted to do, but everyone was like,

00:01:30.727 --> 00:01:32.317
"I don't believe you jumped there.

00:01:32.317 --> 00:01:33.720
"That's Photoshop."

00:01:33.720 --> 00:01:35.757
And I'm like, "It's not."

00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:37.852
How did it feel the first time

00:01:37.852 --> 00:01:40.530
you saw yourself in this campaign?

00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:43.020
Truth be told, I have four daughters,

00:01:43.020 --> 00:01:46.800
all of which just rips dad to pieces.

00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:50.197
So, (laughs) my youngest daughter said,

00:01:50.197 --> 00:01:53.617
"Dad, you look like a posh dancer

00:01:53.617 --> 00:01:57.957
"who thinks they are like
amazing, but really they're not."

00:01:59.130 --> 00:02:02.100
You're never gonna be
cool when you're just dad.

00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:04.170
You are in peak performance shape.

00:02:04.170 --> 00:02:05.940
What's your training regime look like?

00:02:05.940 --> 00:02:07.290
I'm actually really fortunate

00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:09.750
I found out an incredible
trainer, David Kingsbury,

00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:12.420
who trained Hugh Jackman for "Wolverine."

00:02:12.420 --> 00:02:13.380
He trained me for this.

00:02:13.380 --> 00:02:15.810
I'd never been in such crazy shape.

00:02:15.810 --> 00:02:17.430
It was extreme.

00:02:17.430 --> 00:02:19.350
There was so much discipline behind it.

00:02:19.350 --> 00:02:20.910
You don't drink alcohol.

00:02:20.910 --> 00:02:22.230
You eat clean.

00:02:22.230 --> 00:02:25.230
You know, you're on such
a different sort of regime

00:02:25.230 --> 00:02:27.690
that it's such a reset, and it was great.

00:02:27.690 --> 00:02:29.010
And then I try and sort of stay

00:02:29.010 --> 00:02:31.710
in that kind of somewhere in there.

00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:33.630
What was the most surprising
thing you learned working

00:02:33.630 --> 00:02:36.390
with Brad Pitt on "Bullet Train?" (laughs)

00:02:36.390 --> 00:02:38.250
It's a very funny photo of us.

00:02:38.250 --> 00:02:40.260
We had all sorts of ways of doing hearts.

00:02:40.260 --> 00:02:42.030
Do you what was interesting on that tour,

00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:44.370
he had these beautiful cashmere shirts,

00:02:44.370 --> 00:02:47.250
God's Own Cashmere, which I found out

00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:49.320
that pretty much everybody had,

00:02:49.320 --> 00:02:52.470
but I didn't find that gift in my hotel,

00:02:52.470 --> 00:02:55.280
but Joey King, she had a
beautiful cashmere shirt.

00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:56.193
Good thing.

00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:00.660
What do you love most about farm life?

00:03:00.660 --> 00:03:02.370
That's everything to me actually.

00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:06.150
There's nothing better than
being kind of like back at home

00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:07.560
and out in the countryside.

00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:09.630
Kind of keeping busy outside of work,

00:03:09.630 --> 00:03:12.120
it's nice to have like
a hobby, to be creative,

00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:13.800
to be kind of immersed in something.

00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:16.230
It started with like really
enjoying cooking for the family,

00:03:16.230 --> 00:03:17.850
and then it was like, well,
actually I wanna learn more

00:03:17.850 --> 00:03:20.205
about where those ingredients come from.

00:03:20.205 --> 00:03:21.990
And then it's like, well, you know,

00:03:21.990 --> 00:03:24.660
the fresher, the better and more organic.

00:03:24.660 --> 00:03:26.610
And then it was like, well,
then I started gardening,

00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:27.990
and then it was a vegetable garden,

00:03:27.990 --> 00:03:29.550
and you start to get
more involved with that.

00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:31.020
And then it just got
further and further out.

00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:31.920
And now I have pigs.

00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:34.260
I'm looking at getting a couple cows.

00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:35.093
You know, it's just stuff like that,

00:03:35.093 --> 00:03:36.480
but it kind of keeps you busy,

00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:38.288
and it's kind of like it's
just a sort of a thing

00:03:38.288 --> 00:03:40.140
that's for you, you know?

00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:43.200
Tom Ford personally shaved
Aaron Taylor-Johnson's

00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:45.210
Golden Globe winning mutton chops.

00:03:45.210 --> 00:03:47.250
Tom is so particular.

00:03:47.250 --> 00:03:48.810
He's got such an eye for detail,

00:03:48.810 --> 00:03:50.520
and he knows exactly what he wants,

00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:51.840
and that's kind of the beauty of Tom

00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.450
is that like there's structure and form,

00:03:54.450 --> 00:03:57.870
and I think he just wanted
to kind of craft the look.

00:03:57.870 --> 00:04:01.050
And I was so open to him just doing that

00:04:01.050 --> 00:04:02.700
because I like playing characters,

00:04:02.700 --> 00:04:04.410
and I like when you when
you jump onto something,

00:04:04.410 --> 00:04:08.550
and you get to start to shed
yourself and then just start

00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:10.900
to sort of put together
these other characters.

00:04:11.760 --> 00:04:13.418
It doesn't really matter
how you kind of find it.

00:04:13.418 --> 00:04:15.750
Like you can start from
the physical aspect

00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:19.050
all the way through to like
the psychological aspects

00:04:19.050 --> 00:04:21.089
of your character, but
they sort of kind of merge

00:04:21.089 --> 00:04:22.170
at the same time.

00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:25.140
How do you get into the
mindset of a psychopath?

00:04:25.140 --> 00:04:26.850
Like anything, you're doing
your research, aren't you?

00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:28.950
And then you're just
absorbing and soaking up,

00:04:28.950 --> 00:04:30.982
and you're being a sponge for all of that.

00:04:30.982 --> 00:04:35.190
And then you want to, you know,
adopt some of those nuances

00:04:35.190 --> 00:04:37.830
and these bad habits and things like that

00:04:37.830 --> 00:04:40.590
and then sort of bring them
out and play with them on set.

00:04:40.590 --> 00:04:44.010
So yeah, it was just a very
toxic mindset you gotta be in.

00:04:44.010 --> 00:04:46.860
If you had to have dinner
with one of your characters,

00:04:46.860 --> 00:04:48.570
who would you choose and why?

00:04:48.570 --> 00:04:49.890
So I got "Kraven the Hunter" here.

00:04:49.890 --> 00:04:52.170
I got Lieutenant Ford from "Godzilla."

00:04:52.170 --> 00:04:53.520
Isaac, "The Wall," no.

00:04:53.520 --> 00:04:55.350
Ray Marcus, absolutely not.

00:04:55.350 --> 00:04:58.470
Friedrich Harding from
"Nosferatu," I just played,

00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:01.590
he'd be quite a laugh for dinner actually.

00:05:01.590 --> 00:05:03.210
He'd be quite a laugh for dinner.

00:05:03.210 --> 00:05:04.590
What's the most surprising
thing you learned

00:05:04.590 --> 00:05:06.900
about John Lennon while
playing him in "Nowhere Boy?"

00:05:06.900 --> 00:05:09.000
What was kind of
interesting about that story

00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.150
was the impact of what rock and roll

00:05:12.150 --> 00:05:16.440
and what Elvis sort of inhabited
like this effect on women.

00:05:16.440 --> 00:05:18.780
And I think in this story,
we was kind of playing

00:05:18.780 --> 00:05:21.660
with the themes of these
maternal figures around him.

00:05:21.660 --> 00:05:23.220
He was living with his aunt Mimi,

00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:25.110
but he sort of discovered
his mother a bit late,

00:05:25.110 --> 00:05:27.600
but she was into rock and
roll, and then he saw Elvis,

00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:30.180
and he saw this effect
that he had on women.

00:05:30.180 --> 00:05:32.040
It was like, okay, I want that attention,

00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:33.300
but not from everybody else.

00:05:33.300 --> 00:05:35.100
All he wanted was the attention

00:05:35.100 --> 00:05:37.350
from, you know, that
one person, his mother.

00:05:37.350 --> 00:05:39.570
What's a cheat day look like for you?

00:05:39.570 --> 00:05:41.010
Lots of pizza, man.

00:05:41.010 --> 00:05:42.000
Pizza and pasta.

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:43.146
On the day of wrap of "Kraven,"

00:05:43.146 --> 00:05:45.030
I had a pizza truck turn up,

00:05:45.030 --> 00:05:47.296
and we all just munched on pizza.

00:05:47.296 --> 00:05:48.510
That's good.

00:05:48.510 --> 00:05:49.758
The character Kraven is one

00:05:49.758 --> 00:05:52.440
of Spider-Man's notorious villains.

00:05:52.440 --> 00:05:53.880
He's quite a big dude.

00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:55.920
I remember looking at the comic books

00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:57.810
and thinking his arm's really, really big,

00:05:57.810 --> 00:05:59.820
but also, you know, it's
his stomach as well,

00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:01.230
which is a bit of a contradiction really,

00:06:01.230 --> 00:06:03.000
because if you want to put on some size,

00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:05.910
you've gotta eat a lot, but
you're not really gonna end up

00:06:05.910 --> 00:06:07.440
with a washboard stomach.

00:06:07.440 --> 00:06:09.120
So that was quite tricky,

00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:10.230
but I did train really hard,

00:06:10.230 --> 00:06:12.840
spent, you know a good six
months training really hard

00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:15.690
to put on size, so I had
that kind of physicality

00:06:15.690 --> 00:06:16.590
for this character.

00:06:16.590 --> 00:06:19.680
Also, the action side of
things is really agile,

00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:21.840
so, you know, I really
wanted to show his movement.

00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:24.660
His technical sort of
skillset is that he tracks

00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:25.666
and hunts down his prey.

00:06:25.666 --> 00:06:29.310
So, you know, that's really important.

00:06:29.310 --> 00:06:30.960
What seems really interesting, I mean,

00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:33.960
it is something that inherently is a part

00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:36.840
of the character and the
introduction to Kraven

00:06:36.840 --> 00:06:38.580
in this movie.

00:06:38.580 --> 00:06:42.150
So, I think it's really
interesting how Kraven's connection

00:06:42.150 --> 00:06:46.200
to his iconic lion vest
is in the comic books.

00:06:46.200 --> 00:06:48.120
So I think we wanna stay true and integral

00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:51.510
to the comic books, and, you
know, it's really important

00:06:51.510 --> 00:06:54.600
to give the comic book
fans what they've seen

00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:58.080
and grown up with and try
and translate that to cinema.

00:06:58.080 --> 00:07:00.630
So, that took some really a lot of time

00:07:00.630 --> 00:07:03.960
and thought into how we
would get to that place.

00:07:03.960 --> 00:07:04.793
Oh, that was it.

00:07:04.793 --> 00:07:05.626
Thanks for watching.

00:07:05.626 --> 00:07:08.323
All right, cheers. (laughs)