The Fall Guy star Aaron Taylor-Johnson couldn’t be happier in his marriage to wife Sam Taylor-Johnson, despite what critics have to say about their age gap.
The actor, 33, met Sam, 57, when she directed him in the 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, and the couple wed in 2012. With more than two decades between them, their relationship has frequently come under public scrutiny.
“What you gotta realize is that what most people were doing in their twenties, I was doing when I was 13,” Aaron revealed in his April/May 2024 Rolling Stone UK cover story.
Reflecting on the backlash, he continued, “You’re doing something too quickly for someone else? I don’t understand that. What speed are you supposed to enjoy life at? It’s bizarre to me.”
The star, who is rumored to be the next James Bond, lives on a farm in Somerset, England, with his wife, with whom he shares “four gorgeous daughters.”
The couple have two children together, Wylda and Romy Hero, born in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Aaron is also stepdad to Sam’s children from her former marriage to art dealer Jay Joplin: Angelica (born in June 1997) and Jessie (born in September 2005).
Aaron sang his partner’s praises in the candid interview, calling her “a great filmmaker and a wonderful storyteller.”
“People will think there’s sort of a bias to me saying it, but I think when they see Back to Black [her upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic], everyone’s going to realize how fantastic a filmmaker she is,” he enthused.
Along with Nowhere Boy, the couple worked together on the 2019 film A Million Little Pieces. “There’s a protectiveness that I feel; I think it’s really difficult,” he admitted of their onscreen collaborations. “There’s also part of me that feels like if something didn’t work, I’m the one that’s responsible.”
For her part, Sam has noted in the past that she shared a “connection” with her now-husband when they worked on their first movie together, telling the U.K.’s Sunday Times in 2017, “He was very intense and absolutely mind made-up [about us dating]”.
“I literally found my soulmate,” she gushed at the time. “I feel so blessed: every day I wake up happy. We spend every minute of the day together.”
Aaron, famed for his roles in action-packed — and at times violent — movies, is also mindful of not bringing his work home.
“It’s important for me to get rid of that and shed that skin when I come home to cuddle my kids at night,” he explained in his Rolling Stone interview. “People see and perceive this thing around my career, and that’s OK. But I’m just trying to juggle my family and my work. I’m doing normal life; dentist appointments,”
He added, “Career doesn’t necessarily take a back seat, but it takes a different thought behind the choices that you make.”
