Aaron Taylor Johnson is one of the “young Hollywood” stars featured on Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue cover. Overall, I was disappointed with this year’s VF issue – the editorial is chaotic and ugly, and the people selected… well, I think better choices could have been made. Take, for example, Aaron. Aaron is an actor and I would consider him more internet-famous than movie-star famous. But people know his name and they have some idea about his story and the fact that an older woman groomed him when he was a teenager and they’re still married and raising their daughters. That’s arguably the most interesting part of his biography, but magazines tend to shy away from asking Aaron about it directly. Some highlights from VF:

Whether his character in David Leitch’s new film, The Fall Guy, is based on Brad Pitt: “My character’s far from Brad. I don’t want to give away what my character is like. But Brad was very much a team leader and a mentor [on Bullet Train]—someone who has this incredible ability to have a presence on and offscreen. You get actors at his level that are probably a little threatened by any other actor who might shine. But Brad’s guiding us along to have a good time and succeed. He’s a joy to work with.

The James Bond rumors: “It’s flattering. You can have something really positive [written about you], but you can also have something really negative that can circulate. You just want to stay in your lane, stay grounded, stay around the people that you love and love you back, and stay in that world. Because the moment you start believing the sh-t people say about you, you’ve lost your f–king mind. You’ve lost it. I’ve seen, especially from Nocturnal Animals, you pick up an award or something, and then the next day it doesn’t really amount to anything. It’s just these materialistic things. What’s real in my life are my kids and my home. Those are my rock and my center.

His relationship with social media: “Naturally, I’m pretty awful at it. I’d rather not carry a phone. I only started carrying a phone when my kids went to school and I thought, I’d better have a phone for emergencies. I ended up getting social media for the press tour for Avengers…. I had it for a few years. I found it really toxic and clogging up my imaginative brain space. Also, I’ve got a teenager. Being a parent that was like, “I’m going to have it, but you can’t” seemed ridiculous to me. It’s the way it was when we were kids and it was like, “I want to smoke.” And your parent goes, “You can’t smoke, it’s bad for you.” And you go, “You smoke a pack a day. Why can’t I have a cigarette?”

When he stopped using Instagram: “On top of that, there’s a lot of love on Instagram but there comes a whole bag of sh-t and anger towards you. When you’re in our profession, you build up a thick skin, but certain things still hurt. I put it to bed at the end of 2018 and brought it back for Bullet Train. There was a healthy gap. I felt like, if I do bring it back, I’ll have some boundaries with it.

He’s a big fan of Brad Pitt: “I was a big fan of Brad when I was a kiddo. I loved his presence onscreen. He really was the master of cool. Being able to work with him later on in life, and him actually be a great person and great, giving actor…that was cool.

[From Vanity Fair]

“I’ve got a teenager…” Jeez, let me look that up. His oldest, Wylda Rae, was born in July 2010. So… she’ll be 13 this year. Or does he mean his step-daughters? Sam Taylor Johnson was already the mother to two girls when she met Aaron – his stepdaughters are 26 and… 16 years old. He was probably talking about his youngest stepdaughter. “What’s real in my life are my kids and my home. Those are my rock and my center.” – but what about your wife, bro?? Hm. Anyway, I don’t actually hate his comments about social media. It’s completely fine to opt out, it’s completely fine to only use it for work, and it’s completely fine to enjoy social media.

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Vanity Fair.