Why Aaron Taylor-Johnson doesn’t like blockbusters: “I didn’t really care for them”
Regardless of genre, style, budget, or time period, some actors have a habit of rocking up, sometimes with little to no warning, and one such man is Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
His early career highlights, beyond the Marvel movies and the Kick-Ass franchise, are interspersed with period dramas, coming-of-age stories, biopics, and romantic comedies.
However, something seems to have changed, wherein 2024 saw him in three films, The Fall Guy, Nosferatu, and Kraven the Hunter, two of which had budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars (Nosferatu was still the pricest at $50million), and all three packed with big names, backed by major studios or directors, and heavily promoted to a mainstream audience. Even when you look at the two films he made either side of that triumvirate, Bullet Train in 2022 and 28 Years Later in 2025, that comment stays the course.
Are the days of hand-picked, genre-hopping projects now behind him, then, happy to ply his trade solely in the spotlight? According to an interview he gave with Esquire, absolutely not: “In my opinion, the actor that goes job to job becomes fucking boring. You know that someone’s going to pick you up, take you to work, do your makeup, tell you, ‘Here’s your mark. These are your lines. You’re fucking great!’ And on to the next job. Fuck off!”
He cooled his heel for a bit before, adding with some insight, “I’m sure people dream of that. If this is what you want to do, that’s great. It doesn’t feed 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.”
This attitude might seem refreshing in an era of Hollywood with such a blatantly capitalist identity, but let’s break it down for a second. Taylor-Johnson talks a big game about not being that guy who just goes from “job to job”, but that’s exactly what he was doing in 2024. He’s clearly not shy about taking roles (and money) from big franchises; after all, he’s supposedly in the running to play James Bond, for crying out, and in their new Amazon-owned era too.
Words are one thing, but the actor will and should be judged on his actions, and after 28 Years Later, his next project was Fuze, a small crime heist more akin to his early indie gigs. He’s got some more projects lined up over the next few years, with the sequel to 28 Years Later, Robert Eggers’ next film, Werwulf, and an adaptation of the Jo Nesbø novel Blood on Snow, which feels like more of a mixture, so maybe he’s finally making good on his promise.
Striking the balance between creative satisfaction, maintaining momentum, and, of course, that sweet, sweet payday is something all famous actors have to consider. Taylor-Johnson’s popularity and talent means he can do pretty much whatever he wants, which might not be the blessing it appears to be.
