![](\"https:\/\/www.celebitchy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/aaron-taylor-johnson-esquire.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Aaron Taylor Johnson covers the latest issue of Esquire, to promote his lead role in Kraven the Hunter<\/em>. There\u2019s a big chunk of the interview devoted to Aaron dodging the entire conversation around James Bond – he\u2019s seen as one of the leading contenders to take over as 007, but he doesn\u2019t confirm or deny anything about it. He won\u2019t even say if he\u2019s had meetings with Barbara Broccoli. There\u2019s something else hanging over this piece too – Aaron\u2019s refusal to just \u201cgive in\u201d and be a movie star. He says he doesn\u2019t want it, that he wants to just vibe and make his own choices as an artist without a movie star plan. But now that he\u2019s in his 30s, it does feel like he\u2019s about to have a bigger breakout. Some highlights from Esquire:<\/p>\n He and Sam have four kids, three still at home\u2014ages sixteen, thirteen, and eleven<\/strong>. \u201cTeenagers, man,\u201d says Aaron, who just turned thirty-three this week. \u201cI\u2019ve got teenagers.\u201d<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t like to book back-to-back projects: <\/strong>\u201cIn my opinion, the actor that goes job to job becomes f–king boring. You know that someone\u2019s going to pick you up, take you to work, do your makeup, tell you, \u2018Here\u2019s your mark. These are your lines. You\u2019re f–king great!\u2019 And on to the next job. F–k off. I\u2019m sure people dream of that. If this is what you want to do, that\u2019s great. It doesn\u2019t 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\u2014that\u2019s plenty. That feeds my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t like big studio movies:<\/strong> \u201cThere was Kick-Ass and then there was Godzilla and Avengers, and all those things lined up for me. But I didn\u2019t really care for them.\u201d He was getting offers to do more of that stuff for more money. He was up for roles \u201cthat nobody knows about\u2014big, huge franchises that were in play.\u201d But by then he and Sam had two small children. The decision not to keep going down that blockbuster road wasn\u2019t hard. \u201cI wanted, purely, to be with my babies. I didn\u2019t want to be taken away from them. I battled with what that would be like.\u201d Looking back, he says, \u201cI would say I was probably not ready to be in that position anyway\u2014it was too early. But yeah, I also slightly didn\u2019t give a f–k.\u201d <\/p>\n He & Sam moved back to England, and now have a farmhouse in Somerset:<\/strong> \u201c[Country life is] what I love doing. I have pigs. I have bees!\u201d<\/p>\n The group of actors he came up with:<\/strong> \u201cIt was me and Nick Hoult, it was Dan Kaluuya, it was Jack O\u2019Connell.\u201d They read for the same parts, hung out and grabbed drinks afterward. Learning who booked which gig was instructive; you could see a logic behind it, he says. \u201cYou\u2019d be like, \u2018Oh my God\u2014Andrew Garfield\u2019s perfect for this.\u2019 Or \u2018I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m here\u2014this is Jack\u2019s job.\u2019 That teaches you that you\u2019re not f–king right for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether he considers his marriage a creative partnership:<\/strong> \u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s accurate. Yeah, we worked\u2014I met Sam as actor and director. I think we\u2019re really great at collaborating. But that\u2019s not why I fell in love with her.\u201d It was another one of those gut instincts, he says\u2014he knew right away when he met Sam but also before they met, by the time he was ten or eleven\u2014that \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t want to talk about his marriage anymore:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m trying to be as honest as possible. I\u2019ve probably talked to you more about my kids and Sam than I have with anybody. I\u2019ve got really nothing to hide, and I\u2019m secure in what we have. But I\u2019m not going to unlock things that are actually precious to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [From Esquire]<\/p>\n Every so often, Generation TikTok tries to make \u201cAaron finally left Sam\u201d into a thing and clearly, it\u2019s never true. Like, I thought their relationship was creepy too, especially how they first got together. But it\u2019s also been fifteen years, and Sam and Aaron seem really happy? After all that, they have a strong marriage, perhaps even a conservative, \u201ctraditional marriage.\u201d She raises the kids and he works, they live in the country, they have a small farm. They\u2019ve both always insisted that Aaron was the one who knew Sam was the one, and that he wanted these kids. <\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Cv7gOUzSxre\/<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Cover & IG courtesy of Esquire.<\/small><\/p>\n\n