Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s earliest acting inspiration: “I had to finish the movie if he was in it”

Posted On August 10, 2025August 10, 2025

It was English astronomer Sir Isaac Newton who first coined the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” all the way back in the 1600s in a letter to a scientific rival, and it’s one that we’ve recently seen all over the place thanks to the reunion of a certain Manchester band this summer.

The root meaning of it, of course, is to give credit to those who succeeded and forged a path for those who came next, and it’s something that Kraven the Hunter star Aaron Taylor-Johnson acknowledges when talking about the actors he looked up to as a teen.

It has been a busy year for the 35-year-old British star, with roles in the Danny Boyle zombie sequel 28 Days Later and a forthcoming World War II feature called Fuze set to be released. And while Marvel’s Kraven was absolutely panned by critics at the end of last year, audiences were far more enthusiastic in the following year, with the movie becoming one of 2025’s most-streamed, once released to view at home.

Taylor-Johnson’s character in that movie was the culmination of a transformation that has slowly taken place over a 20-year period, as he went from a breakthrough role as a skinny John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, to slightly-nervy vigilante in Kick Ass to the Avengers as a fully-fledged, muscle-bound superhero big game hunter.

In between, he has shown some genuine depth of ability in the likes of Tom Ford’s 2016 dark thriller Nocturnal Animals, for which he scooped a Golden Globe for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, Christopher Nolan’s baffling Tenet and last year’s underrated action comedy The Fall Guy alongside Ryan Gosling.

That ability to transform and convincingly move from one very different character to another is something that informed Taylor-Johnson’s thoughts on film performance as a kid, and when asked by At Large magazine to name his acting influences, he revealed: “From an early standpoint, it was Gary Oldman. I would see him in a movie and always think, Who is that fucking guy? I had to finish the movie if he was in it. I kept seeing him and asking who he was, until I finally decided, ‘That’s what acting is about’.”

Oldman, of course, is a true modern-day great of acting. He can undoubtedly be placed alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in the very select band of actors who can also stand with those frontrunners of a previous generation, such as Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. He is perhaps possessed of even more range, however, and when you consider the scope of the movies and the characters he has inhabited, it’s possible he has few equals in the industry.

Not just Sirius Black, but Winston Churchill. Not just ‘Dracula’, but Harry Truman. The Fifth Element, Leon, Slow Horses, The Dark Knight—Oldman’s CV is scary, quite frankly, and he is also known to be an actor who will bring others into the fold and share his experience and wisdom on set, as a young Daniel Radcliffe attested to when recalling his filming the Harry Potter movies.

The actor’s chameleonic abilities are a big reason that Taylor-Johnson admires the veteran so much, as he added, “That was always a big part of it for me, how those people can transform, look and move differently, they’re not just sounding different with their accent, they start to walk differently, laugh differently, smile differently.”

Just to show he isn’t done after Kraven with the idea of animals becoming humans and vice versa, Taylor-Johnson has also signed up to work with Nosferatu director Robert Eggers in Werewulf, which is due to be released sometime in 2026. It will see Eggers teaming up with Sjón, his co-writer on 2022’s The Northman.

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