You’re probably a little familiar with Aaron Taylor-Johnson from his roles in Kick-Ass or Savages, or maybe you just recognize him for his dreamy eyes. But since he’s working alongside breakout-star Victor Rasuk and legend Bryan Cranston for one of the most talked about re-boots of 2014, you’ll definitely remember him.
GlobalGrind recently caught up with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and he talked about everything from acting out the sometimes disgusting action scenes in Godzilla and playing the son of Bryan Cranston’s character, to Comic-Con nerves. Godzilla is in theaters everywhere now.
Check out the interview below.
Tell us in terms of the visual effects, things that you had to go through in those action scenes that you were impressed by seeing in the final cut.
The special effects stuff, the way it works is you give a variation of different looks and sometimes that look is funny, ’cause I look at that and go, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize he was gonna be that close.’ And then there’s another look where I’m on the train track and the mutant comes over and it’s eggs inside of her and I’m like, ‘Fuck, that looks really fucking gross.’
That wasn’t in the storyboard!
If I had known it was that disgusting maybe I’d have a look like fuck, I don’t know, mate. So it’s funny what you thought when they put things in, but essentially we gave (director) Gareth a lot of variation on looks. I think they went with more subtle looks because I think with Gareth it’s always about trying to make it as natural as possible. I think sometimes when you’re in a moment where you think he’d probably react hugely, maybe you do the opposite…
You’re just too much in shock.
Yeah, you do something that is so still, like that you’re not human really and I like the way that Gareth thinks about details like that. But when you’re in it you just have a lot of that, ‘Oh how big is he again? Right. And how far away?’ And then you’ll play with it and then he’ll mess around with mad roars and loud noises of different animals all mixed up together – like a walrus meets a lion meets an elephant’s fart or something. He’d just fuck with it a little bit.
When did he offer you the part? How did you react? Did you jump on board right away?
I got a call and they said they’re gonna do Godzilla and my initial reaction was like… WHY!?!
That’s what Gareth said actually. He said that he offered it to a lot of the actors. Most of the actors were like, Godzilla?
That’s it. And even Gareth as well when he got approached. ‘Let me see the script, well I that’s not the vision I sort of see’ and they were like, ‘Well, come in.’ I learn a lot from that as well. The majority of the things you get you go, ‘mm, nah.’ And you read these things and it definitely changes. And depending on the filmmaker or the cast or whatever. I was definitely like, ‘A monster movie?’ That’s not what I was thinking of doing next or whatever. But then they said, ‘The director is this young guy, he’s Gareth Edwards,’ and this thing called Monsters.
I’m like, ‘I saw that, I remember that.’ It was beautifully shot and it was really a lovely story about these two guys; it’s the opposite to what a monster movie is. And that’s how it kind of started. And then we just chatted for about six hours just about what films did we love, or about the character for this, what he wants to do with Godzilla, we just got underneath. I think he’s an amazing filmmaker and he’s brilliant directing. He understands actors. He had a really strong vision for it and by the time I walked out I was like, ‘I will fucking do this movie. I want to do this movie.’
With Cranston he’s obviously one of the great actors working today. What was it like to play the father/son relationship with him on the screen?
It was hard because obviously he’s not an asshole. He’s a really lovable guy and my whole thing was to be like, ‘fucking hate you, dad.’ With Cranston, you just think, ‘Oh God, I wish he wasn’t my dad, he’s so awesome.’
What has the fan boy experience been like? Because with Kick-Ass, now Godzilla and then The Avengers coming up, it’s like the level of fandom and fanatics just gets higher and higher. Have you experienced that yet? Are you excited of what’s about to happen?
Comic-Con you always get nervous, you think, oh God, they’re the guys that might boo you or something. I think it’s a huge place of people who love film and love characters and have a real fan base in a way, so it’s kind of amazing. I’ve never really seen that many sort of people that are that lovers of comic books and movies and combining them. Usually they’re just really happy.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Warner Bros
