Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a regular chameleon when it comes to his movie roles.
In fact, the 26-year-old actor renders himself unrecognizable—or a hair and makeup team does, that is—so often, that it must be rather relaxing to be able to sit down, chat and give interviews as himself.
Or it's highly agitating. Whichever.
But when E! News sat down with Taylor-Johnson to talk about his latest film, the war thriller The Wall, he was congenial as always—although he did look at us kinda funny when we asked about sex vs. naps...
He might be surprised just how not obvious that question has proved for some celebrities.
Taylor-Johnson can be seen in theaters now in The Wall, in which he and John Cena star as an Army sniper team stationed in Iraq. On a mission to inspect a construction site, both get wounded and end up playing cat-and-mouse—the Doug Liman-directed film's run time is a tense 1 hour, 21 minutes—with another sniper who at least seems to be working alone and whose motives are unclear.
While the British star knows from getting gritty on the big screen, having just won a Golden Globe this year for his chilling performance in Nocturnal Animals, this was a major dramatic breakout role for Cena.
"He's terrific in this movie," Taylor-Johnson praised his co-star to E! News at the film's New York premiere. "Extraordinary to see this intensity...I think it's going to be beautifully surprising for people." Cena, of course, had already returned the favor, telling us his co-star was "awesome" in the film.
Also fresh on Taylor-Johnson's resume is his role as the face of Givenchy's classic men's fragrance, Gentleman. The campaign will launch in August and include a commercial directed by his wife, Sam Taylor-Johnson. "It's nice to be supported, and we do that for one another," the actor said about working with Sam, whom he met when she directed him in 2009's Nowhere Boy.
He told E! News that they were planning on having a lovely time with their kids—they have two daughters together and Sam has two daughters from a previous marriage—on Mother's Day. Not a bad way to celebrate the opening of a new movie, either.