Before he explores brotherly love with Elizabeth OIsen‘s Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the future Quicksilver and former Kick-Ass star is playing Olsen’s husband and Bryan Cranston’s son in Gareth Edwards’ thunderous retelling of the Godzilla story. Aaron Taylor-Johnson spoke exclusively to SciFiNow about stepping into 60 years of city-toppling terror…
How does it feel, entering into this world of Godzilla, with 28 movies before you?
As far as I am concerned, we are wiping the slate clean, and bringing it back to the original. The only one I have seen really is the 1954 one, as that was the one Gareth was drawing on, and even creating the Godzilla itself from. I had no real interest in seeing the recent one again. I have a bit of a memory of it and knowing it was pretty crap, so I had no interest in going back.
How is this one different?
We are not playing characters that have been played before.
This is pretty much your first big Hollywood blockbuster.
With Gareth driving it, it feels more like an intimate independent kind of movie. And we didn’t shoot it with big 3D cameras or anything, so it’s got a more raw feel to it. And Gareth wanted to push it to this more emotional story throughout it so you have something to relate to and grab hold of, and something that is more appealing than just a special effects movie.
Were you worried at all about it being a monster movie, and that people were coming to see it because of the 350ft lizard?
I was a bit like, “Come on guys, this is not really what I was thinking about doing next. And I was thinking about taking this time out. But it was Gareth that drove me into it. Then you get the list of Bryan Cranston, Lizzy Olsen, Juliette Binoche… and you go, “OK, there is someone here who is trying to push the boundaries of blockbusters.”
He is trying to put something together that doesn’t have to be shit. And yes, it’s not the title role, and it’s possibly being carried by the name of what it is, but that takes the pressure off. And this movie wasn’t your typical green screen movie. A lot of it has been shot on location. They CGI-ed chaos and buildings smashed up and shit, but that’s the beauty of how Gareth works. He did that on .
Can you tell us about your character?
I play an EOD Navy Lieutenant, so my world was about researching, especially being British and playing an American military guy. I am also playing a young father, but I am a young father, so that felt like a nice, comfortable zone to be in, although he is finding it very difficult because he’s never around.
He has this pretty crap relationship with his father too, and that imitates how he is around his child. He needs to revisit the past and have his dad and him forgive each other for what they have been through, in order to understand what he needs to do in life. And while that is all happening, the ‘disaster’ is happening around the world and splitting everybody up. And there is that element of getting back to the one you love, and trying to keep family together.
Godzilla is due in cinemas 16 May 2014. You can read our massive director interview in SciFiNow issue 92 and buy the 1954 Godzilla on DVD for £10.83 at Amazon.co.uk.
