Actor targets obsessions
Aaron Taylor-Johnson relishes going deep into the psychology of his portrayals.
The 26-year-old did lots of background work for his teen Dave in the two Kick-Ass action movies, the sullen superhero Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron and the psychopath Ray in last year’s Nocturnal Animals.
His latest exercise in obsession is playing sniper Sgt. Allen Isaac in the Iraq war film The Wall.
Here, Taylor-Johnson talks about making the film that amounts to a gruelling one-man tour de force:
Q Was the sniper part as harrowing as it seemed?
A That was my main intrigue and why I was interested in doing what is basically an experiment.
Q How did it test your resilience?
A Well, we shot the film in 14 days, so a lot of the time it was one take and move on. I felt like I was going back to the roots of why I wanted to be an actor in the first place.
Q What were some of the other challenges?
A At times, we had to race against the light as the sun set (during filming in rural Southern California). And there were moments when we had long takes of dialogue. It was kind of nutty.
Q How did you prepare?
A I had a couple of months to study with the guys in the military who do this kind of thing. And I went to a sniper school (United States Army Sniper School).
Q What did you learn?
A I learned how to shoot with a bunch of rifles in the day and night. And I picked up the jargon, the banter and the bad habits, including chewing tobacco.
Q Did you have discussions with snipers?
A I spoke to them a lot. They told me it really bothers them when they see (snipers) in movies who have clean uniforms with all their buttons.
Q What was your impression of their personalities?
A These sniper guys are a different breed. They have a dark sense of humour, but that’s how they deal with what they do. Q What else did you pick up?
A They always dress for comfort because they never know how long they’ll be hiding out. Sometimes it’s up to 72 hours doing their thing, eating peanut butter sandwiches or chewing tobacco because smoking cigarettes would give them away.
Q How did you apply that research?
A Look at my character in The Wall — he’s completely shredded. We made sure his buttons came off and the crotch in his pants is ripped because they told us it’s the first thing to go.