Hi, I’m Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and this is my Last Meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat, and we’re all gonna die. You might recognize today’s guest from films like Kick Ass, Nocturnal Animals, and Bullet Train, and his newest films Kraven the Hunter and Nosferatu are out this December. He’s known as one of the true chameleonic actors of our generation, and his greatest transformation actually involved a last meal. Aaron Taylor Johnson, welcome to the show. Josh, thanks for having me, man. Of course, of course. When you deliver the line, my last meal will only be followed by my last breath. Make my death mean something. Aaron, the camera pans over to you, and you look exactly like a dog. How long did that makeup take? Yes, that was a, it was a commercial for, um, dog rescuing, I guess, you know, it was, uh, right? Yeah! They’re gonna kill me tonight. My last meal. Did, did you never actually see the commercial? No. Ha ha ha ha! I didn’t mean to put you on blast, man! No, I didn’t, ahem. Crispy, yes, I, we, we, we, yeah, I saw it, obvs. um, I honestly, when I do a job, I kind of like, I’m fully immersed in, in that character, in that project, and then literally, come day of wrap, it’s like, yeah, it’s all erased. Well, know that you saved dogs lives, Aaron, and that is By the way, is that a cheese string? That’s it. No, it’s not. Is it some celery? Keep guessing, keep guessing, keep going. You’re gonna eventually get there. I mean, other than that, it looks like it could be. I was drunk when I got this, and I learned that is when you don’t want to get tattoos, because then you just end up going, Yeah, that looks perfect. It’s a piece of It’s a leek. It is a leek, in fact! It is a leek. And we’ll get into this in the first round, but I am a huge fan of vegetables. And I know you are a farmer, but we got a lot of that to get to. Have you thought about your last meal before? I think it’s like one of those non throwaway things. Like, you could instantly go, right, okay, well, a double double in and out burger, bang. And then you kind of go, well, actually, what are some things that feel like sentimental meals to you? Do you know what I mean? So, and then it just made you think about what are some of my favorite dishes? And it kind of just comes down to two kind of countries, really. It comes down to French cuisine and Italian. Long winded version is this. I was going for my last meal. I kind of want it to like run beautifully, smoothly through this kind of journey. It does feel like an orchestra, man. And I cannot wait to eat this with you. You ready to get down to it? Yeah, let’s do it brother. I’m hungry Aaron for the first course of your final meal We have the panier de crudités from La Colombe d’Or, that is in the south of France, all the fresh farmer’s market vegetables We actually got these from the Santa Monica farmer’s market, which I believe is the best farmer’s market in Los Angeles. We have the baguette, we have the anchoiade. That’s an emulsification of anchovies, garlic, and olive oil. And then of course, the pate de volaille with aspic on top. We have an ice cold Stella Artois and an ice cold Badoit sparkling water, My man! Salud. Salud. Cheers. What a meal. Uh, tell me about La Colombe d’Or and why it’s special to you. It’s an experience. So, the La Colombe d’Or, yes, you said it right, south of France, it’s in Port au Prince. It’s the most beautiful, little quaint hotel. The menu has never changed from the years I’ve been there. And this is one of the things that you get for like lunch or dinner. And it’s just amazing. What it is a basket of vegetables and the way it comes is so famous, you get things in here like a whole cucumber and everyone just you know breaks it off you get it on your plate and then, That’s the best. Where else would you rather be? This is perfect. Like it seems crazy, but, and when vegetables are grown, like organic, amazing vegetables are grown so good. That’s it, that’s the simplicity of everything like that. I think it’s the best. I think a true sign of wisdom is growing to really appreciate good vegetables. I have a vegetable garden at home. I love food. I love growing vegetables. It brings back, it’s such a sort of a memory thing for me. And it just reminds me of being in the, in the summer in South of France, having those basket of vegetables and the bread and the butter and you know, when you’re in France the baguettes are so good and then you’ve got the pate. Dig into the pate, break the aspic. Yes, sir. Yeah, so this is like an emulsified chicken liver mousse pate that we did right here. Hats off to your amazing chef team we have there, because this is extraordinary. Homemade, shoutout Colby. That is nuts. God. Damn. That was good. I’m like, what camera do I need to tell? I think you stare at every camera individually. Even get your face in the food details cam and hit him with a goddamn. That, that’s mad good. I’m not even kidding. That’s so damn good. Um, I want to ask you, you got a couple movies coming out. Kraven the Hunter and Nosferatu. It seems like the last time you had this sort of dichotomy of like, very challenging, uh, dramatic, almost art house role alongside, like, a blockbuster action flick was when you started your, like, adult acting career with Nowhere Boy and Kick Ass. Now you got Kraven the Hunter and Nosferatu. Do you think about that dichotomy? Or for you, is every role just sort of something that you found interesting? Also, this is a surprise eggplant. Thought it was a zucchini. You’re not in for a surprise eggplant. No. No, you always want to be aware. I try and balance things quite a lot. Like, if I’m going this far, if I’m going far out like here, I better have something that’s going to pull me back over here because I can’t really stick in one lane. I really do enjoy the craft of acting and performing and I find people are like, Oh, I’m never going to do that kind of movie or this kind of thing or blockbusters are so this, this, this. Actually what you’re doing is you’re denying yourself of actually growing as an actor because you’re not, you’re not experiencing the landscape of film industry. So the moment I’ve sort of opened myself up to doing those sort of things, I’ve learned so much. For the longest time, I did one thing a year, my babies were growing up and I really, just, uh, loved and enjoyed being a dad for the most part, and I was never going to miss that, you know, for the world. So I was picking one thing a year for about a good 10 to 12 years. The industry, they’re not going to wait for you. Do you know what I mean? People can really thrive in this world, like in this sort of like, you can go on talk shows and all sorts of things and have a huge personality and be able to like, we want to see that person. And I, I, that, I, that’s, I find this. It’s quite, you know, a different aspect of it, and really quite scary, to be fair. Like, I’m happy to be behind a mask and in a character, you know? You said that previously in Q&As, you sort of learned to inhabit the character that is Aaron Taylor- Johnson doing a press tour. Right. Has your mind changed since then, or do you, I mean, we all mask constantly depending on different situations. Right, so everyone does that anyway. You know, whether you’re out on a date or whatever, or on a night out, or whatever, do you know what I mean? People aren’t who they really are, you know, they’re gonna hide behind something. You don’t really get to know someone until, you know, you get in real deep. But like, I did, uh, Nocturnal Animals with Tom Ford. We were on a press tour and I remember just being like well I guess I wasn’t doing very well in in the press side of things and he kind of pulled me aside and was like you gotta act like the movie star and I was like, I don’t know what that even means. That makes me feel sick I don’t know what that means. He was like, no, you should be there like you deserve to be there. You’ve earned to be there, hold yourself in a way right and I struggled with it, cause what a weird bit of advice in a way. But the concept of what you meant was like, stop like, you know, hiding behind, feeling like, ah, I don’t belong here. Yeah. Like, own up, own up to it. And um, that was some kind of, a sort of a pinnacle moment of like, Okay, I gotta put on this hat. Is any of that because you don’t feel like you’re good enough to be a movie star, like imposter syndrome, or is it simply, you don’t feel like all movie stars should have to act that way in a certain sense. Cause it is weird. The whole press tour. It’s probably because I don’t really care what movie stardom is. I guess I don’t really know. That was never my intentional goal, right? Having the joy of like making movies is already a win. It’s such a blessing. Like I can tell you, like I don’t have much expectations for those. I don’t carry things on. I don’t hold onto those. Good for you for the spring onion, because I don’t do the spring onion. You shouldn’t do the spring onion. You should not do, I got, I did it because of the tattoo. You go, you totes, yeah. Dude, I didn’t mean to interrupt you, I was trying to just lie about it. There’s your thing. When you started acting when you were six, you said part of the motivation was that you simply couldn’t sit still when you were a kid. You were hyperactive, you were in all these things. And then going to move from character to character, uh, was something that could really keep you occupied. It seems like you’re maybe still motivated by that now, going from all these different genres to genres, taking on more and more projects now. Do you think your motivation has changed since you were six, or are you still kind of right back in that, in a sense? So I started really young. I started when I was six. And so I think it became my school of learning, right? Like, I spent a lot of time being opposite, like, really great actors. And when I was 12, I did, like, Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson for, like, Shanghai Knights. I was like what, this is insane. There should have been 12 movies in that series, but go on. Do you reckon we should do a third? You and me. Bro. Right. We gotta get Jackie on board. We can get Jackie on board. You can call my agent. If you guys don’t need me acting, I can just do crafty. I, when I was at school, I never spoke about that side of my life. I kind of lived a dual life for a long time, but it was good. I grew up in a place outside of London, in the suburbs, and went to a very ordinary school, and had great friends, and um, you know, in the best way possible, it just kept me grounded in a great way. So, there’s like a, there’s definitely kind of that dress up. You know, element that I was a kid where I just used to play, you know, dress up, play with our friends and kids on the, on the, on, on the street. And we used to put on little performances and plays and stuff like that for the parents and things like that. Like my kids do now. Yeah. I feel like acting actually was like, my therapy in a way, right? It’s very therapeutic because you’re tapping into really, you know, emotional parts of yourself. Really dark places and you’re being allowed to express that. You’re being able to be unapologetic at times and relentless and like, I love putting my body under kind of physical constraints. You mean like, like actual physical pressure and strain like, they have to do something incredibly difficult. Yeah like, I like going to those places where you feel out of body in a way when you’ve had scenes where a director has got you to a place where you, you’re not, you’re not outside of yourself anymore. Like there’s a feeling where you are present, but you’re floating and you don’t really know where you’re being led And, uh, and it’s kind of scary and you feel vulnerable and, um, but it’s, it’s, that’s the ride and the, the, the thing for me, the buzz and the high for me. And for course number two, we have two shots of chilled Jewel of Russia vodka. We have Tsar Nicoulai Osetra caviar, we have Tsar Nicoulai Golden Osetra caviar out of Bulgaria. We have a Kaluga hybrid caviar out of San Francisco. We have the blini, the creme fraiche, and then the smoked salmon gravlox that we got, uh, from a local Jewish deli. So beautiful. What a time, man. Are you a caviar person? I am and I distinctly remember the first time that I had caviar and it was a bit of a revelatory experience for me. Okay. They served a bite of caviar that was a Lays potato chip with creme fraiche and caviar and you could have told me that was the best thing I’d ever had and I would have fully believed you. Believed you. Yeah. And it was, because of that power of suggestion. I feel like it’s like the biggest marketing thing, it’s like, 100%! You’re gonna love caviar. I’m not even a caviar person. How the hell did we end up here, man? So, here’s the thing. Throw it out. Get him a cheeseburger. Everyone behind the guy’s going, I think this is a place in Paris called Caviar Caspia. Caspia? Caspia, yeah. And it’s literally, you can get a jacket potato with caviar on the top, and it’s ridiculous. But again, it comes back to that thing of like, kind of mad decadence, but like, it tastes amazing. I actually do, I do like caviar, I do think, but it’s not my go to. The fact that this is on my last meal is ridiculous. I think because in my mind, had I be, say, on death row and it’s like my last meal It’s more of an [bleep], it’s more of a [bleep] you cause I’m going to the chair, so I’d be like, well, [bleep] caviar, [bleep]. Love that, if you’re going out, go out with a bang, man. I’d be like, yeah, and a shot And a shot, yeah Vodka, say. Salud, are we ripping it? Should we get that ready and we, We gotta get ready, yeah, yeah. After you. No, I insist, Aaron, come on, No, you’re a guest in our home I insist Alright, I’m gonna do this Alright, I’m gonna do this little bit okay. So hang on, that’s poised, ready to go. Mm hmm after the shot. Yeah. All right like that and like that cheers. Cheers. Thank you. Oh, what’s that little thing you did? That’s how I learned that’s an American thing A hell of a bite. That was [bleep] good. Keep, keep eating. Sorry, sorry producer. No. If you google things to do in Holmer Green, all that comes up are the names of two pubs, The Earl Howe and Bat and Ball. Well there’s a lot, there’s a lot more pubs, uh, there than just those two. I haven’t been there since I was like, 15. Well I was gonna ask, when you were growing up, was a lot of your motivation to try and get out of Holmer Green? To try and enjoy the wide world of caviar and salmon and like, all of this adventure out there? Yes, yes and no. I think I, I, you know, truth to my eyes, I actually was a kid who grew up on fast food chains. I grew up on, you know, microwave, from the freezer to the microwave was my, you know, food at home. And so when I went on this journey to different places and you’d, you’d eat out, you know, amazing restaurants, um, with the crew and that, um, it kind of opened up my eye to actually what real food is, firstly, and, and to amazing flavors and tastes and things like that. So I guess the irony is now that I just love when it comes just to the simplicity of things like even a vegetable. Mm-Hmm. when it’s grown, right? You talked about how you had self destructive tendencies from being a young actor in London where all there was to do was, uh, uh, get pissed and be naughty. What brought you out? That was the tame version. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What’s the untame version? Well, the version I can’t really ever talk about, really. No, I’ve got little ones. No, no, I like, I got little ones, you know. When you first come to the world of like, press, You, if someone asks you a question, you just want to be as genuine as possible. So you go, alright, yeah, here’s the answer. Someone goes, you need media training. Well, I think adolescence. You’re definitely curious and you’re experimenting and you’re exploring. But when you’re doing that, and you’re possibly on the world stage, those little moments of life experiences kind of get taken away. So I guess, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that you just, you just don’t really want to discuss. Do you, do you like, do you mourn for those life experiences that are lost to that? No, no, no, no. I mean, I’ve honestly, I’ve, I’ve had many amazing, wonderful life experiences, many, that nobody knows about, which is great. It’s hard. You know, and I do, I feel, you know, I’m a father, Joel, me and my dad, my girls are teenage girls. I’ve got teenage daughters, mate. You know what I mean? They are, they’re having a very beautiful, normal childhood, as much as I can possibly give them. That’s my gift to them. That’s their blessing and they appreciate it. Are you protective of that gift because you feel like you didn’t have that, or are you just trying to preserve it for the sake of preserving it? Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. Little bit, because you know, I was a child in an adult world and there’s a lot more restriction, boundaries, laws, all sorts of things that are now, right? Right. I just done a movie, 28 years later, with Danny Boyle and the lead is, uh, this young lad Alfie’s 13. I really took him under my wing and, and, and as did Danny. And we took care of him in a way that was like, I remember being that 13 year old. Yeah. But I didn’t have someone who took me under my wing. And it’s a wild world. You go into like navigating being a child, but also being asked to have your own opinion as an actor. So you step on stage, you go, well, how do you feel like getting through this scene? And you kind of go, Oh, well, I, I guess I probably do this. So then you start to get like, Oh, I feel confident about who I am. You know, confidence without wisdom is a hell of a thing. Right. And then where does that, does that ego start to come in? The arrogance that starts to come in. Well, and also, all of that was before all of this. That was probably the last of having a time where you could, you know, still be yourself. Yeah. Meal three. Light it up! Aaron, for course number three of your final meal, we have the buff tartare from Petit Trois along with some grilled toasted bread, we have their butter lettuce salad over here. And then of course we have the whole rack of grilled lamb alongside Pomme dauphinois and tomato Provencal, a little bit of jus on the side. And then of course, for the wine pairings, we’re going with the 1999 Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I like to sort of cut the fat. You get a little bit more age on that, you know, 99. And then we have the 2020, uh, uh, Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé out of Chateau Pavie Macquin. Gorgeous. And our in house sommelier, my brother, John Cher. Love you, John. He actually picked these wines out, so. Well, thank you very much. What a beautiful pairing. Honestly, amazing. Where are we starting with this one? I think the Chateauneuf du Pape. Beautiful. Cheers. Look at that. Cheers, man. That’s really delicious, isn’t it? You a fancy boy? You like fancy boy things? You’re a little fancy boy. You’re a little fancy pants, ain’t you? So, shooting Kraven, we’ve been doing that for the last two years, and I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol for two years. Get the hell out of here. Is this your first drink since the two years? No. Hang on, we’ve just drunk beer, vodka, and wine. There’s no scientific evidence that mixing alcohol is bad for you. It is simply a volume game. When you do mix alcohol, you are more likely to have drank a large volume. So I think it’s healthy and I think we should be diversifying our efforts. Perfect. Well, thanks for clarifying that. Of course. Um, yeah, I was on a very strict diet for that and a meal plan and, and a workout plan. And the reason being was because I needed, you know, I just wanted, I needed to get sort of maximum results in a short space of time, you know, I trained like an athlete, you know, and like things like, bread was never really things like I could eat, like pizza and things like that, but when we got to the end of a shoot, I’d be like, oh, a pizza, that’d be great. And so, so, the steak tartare, why the steak tartare? I was gonna ask if raw meat was part of your Kraven the Hunter training, you famously get very deep into rolls, I imagine borscht and raw meat were a big part of the diet. Yeah. Nah. Well, where did I go? Like real food is, you know? Yeah, chicken, steak, fish, things like that. Challenge is, I think, for Kraven the Hunter was you only got to look at the comic books and you kind of go, my God, this guy’s like, he’s just got, his arms are just enormous. His shoulders, his arms. And he’s got a vest on and he’s like, absolutely ripped to heck. And you’re like, well. Unrealistic body standards in men’s comics. We gotta change it. Hahaha Hahah Yeah, it’s an issue. It’s an issue. It was really difficult to kind of go, there’s this sort of bulk up thing. Yeah, you gotta be lean. It’s a paradox. It doesn’t work. It’s never tried to do it. It does basically do it. And also, what doesn’t work is that my character is someone who’s agile, moves really quick, can like, you know, jump things, fly through the air, kind of in with speed and agility. Yeah. Um, so I was doing a lot of parkour training, you know, and it was nuts because, you know, you’re getting heavier. Gravity doesn’t want to work that way, do you know what I mean? So I sit at about 175 pounds. I had just done Bullet Train, where I got to about 155 pounds. So I wanted to look really leaned out. Ironically, I wanted to look a bit like a Sort of scrappy, alcoholic. Sure, you played it well. So, you know, I dropped a lot of weight. About 155 pounds for that. And then on Kraven, I got to about 195, almost 200 pounds of muscle. Jesus. But when we were mixing the heavy, uh, weightlifting, with the stunts and the parkour, I’d rather be 155 pounds trying to like do back flips. Mm-Hmm. and jump up walls and [bleep] than, than, than 195 pounds. It felt like I was, so heavy. It changes the math. Dude, it was so different. Basically. Yeah. You looked at that comic book and you went like, right, I got, I gotta look like that. That’s, that’s a challenge. I gotta look like that. It’s so people go. Oh, okay, yeah, it’s like a Marvel superhero. He uses the comic book, right, bang. That’s just one of many aspects of my job for that role. Yeah, yeah. And beyond that, it’s like working with the writer and the director and giving this character layers, going through all of the comic books, finding pieces of material, and kind of going, how do we give this, this comic book character, uh, some relatability and, like, ground it? Yeah. Well, it seems like you have so many different problems that you have to solve at once. Also, eat the tartare. Eat the lamb chops. They’re getting cold. I’m gonna talk you up. It sounds like you have so many problems to solve simultaneously and so many things to worry about. I have a general theory that, um, humans want struggle. We want something to be able to constantly work at, a problem that needs to be solved. There’s a theory that laughter literally comes from a place called the problem solving gene. As in like, aha, I figured it out. When you’re not acting, solving the problem of how to bulk but stay lean, how to move like a cat but also punch somebody in the face convincingly, how to play Russell Crowe’s son, uh, but also love him like a father, you’re digging in the dirt and figuring out how to grow vegetables. Do you think that you are just sort of constantly running from one problem to the next? because that’s the human condition. I’ve been drinking. I don’t. Yeah, I definitely, I don’t think I’m going out my way to find problems to solve. I don’t think that’s like someone’s life journey. I really don’t. I don’t think we live to solve problems. I do feel though, when you’ve solved one problem, another one seems to come right behind, you know, and sometimes that’s filmmaking in a weird way. I mean, sometimes that’s filmmaking or you discover something. And it leads to something else, and therefore, you now have a new problem to solve, or something that you got to, yeah. You said earlier in your career, you chased role after role because you felt more comfortable inhabiting a character that was not yourself, almost as if you were running from something. Right. Now that you’ve had time to process, do you think you know what you were running from? Do you know what, I, you know, I do feel like taking on roles is like an escapism. Sure. I do. I think back then I definitely was someone who was, yeah, I, I, I took job after job. You know, I didn’t have a, I didn’t, I didn’t have a home, I guess, to kind of settle in a way. I met my wife and I fell head over heels in love with her and then I knew I wanted a family and so we created a home and we had kids and they are my rock and when I found that I found that going off then to do my work was I was able to then tackle it in a different kind of way like, oh, it’s a craft, it’s a job, it’s something that doesn’t, I don’t need to feel like, um, I’m running away from something or escaping something. I’m just exploring myself. Uh, and that’s okay. Being kind of going off and doing the rock because I do I go I go to a whole other place and I, I think it’s quite hard on my wife and my kids. Yeah, because I know that they know that um, I’m not me, and I go, I go way, way out, but the, the joy and the beauty and the sort of like love and security is knowing that uh that they’ll reel me back in. Yeah, and also when I finish that job I come back to that person that I, I guess I truly am at the heart and soul of everything. And I couldn’t tell you who that person is, but I know and trust that they love who that person is. And that person is, is, is the true me, I guess. You have been chasing down so many roles and playing so many other people that you don’t exactly know who you are, which, to me, there’s no intrinsic value in knowing that. But it seems like other people would get worried when you say, I don’t know who I am, but my family does and that’s okay. Aren’t we all kind of exploring who we are? I mean, I guess at some point, you just gotta feel present and content with the fact that who you are. I don’t feel like I ever stop working on being a better version of myself, like I, there is something that happens to you. I think when you become a parent and your priorities, you know, are solely on your, just love and responsibility is just like raising these pure innocent souls to become the best that they can possibly be. But it’s your sole responsibility to give them like the best life guidance that you can. Without, you know, projecting your own, or without imprinting your, uh, your [bleep] onto them, right? Yeah. You’re gonna have to do something that’s gonna feed your soul, creatively. Cause you don’t wanna, like, you don’t wanna be putting that resentment out there. 100%. You gotta be you, and they need to see you being you. Mm. Because you’re role modeling for them to be them. Yeah. Meal four, five, six, what the [bleep] are we on now? Line it up! Aaron, for the final course of your final meal, we have dessert. We have the tartatin aux pommes, the crêpes lemon, we have the fraises des bois avec chantilly, and creme fraiche. A little espresso, and then the red wine stays on the table, man. Yeah. The red, the red one’s hitting the spot. Tartatin might be my favorite pastry in the entire world. Me too. Yeah. Brother. I just feel like it’s such an art form. Mm-hmm. But it’s also, yeah. It’s an, it’s an absolute go-to, I’m not a dessert person. Mm. Obviously not like, I don’t really have like a sweet tooth. I’m really happy with, like, the meal that we would just had, would’ve had, has, have had, has have had. When you get the tartatin, I mean, it’s an art just to make. You’re cooking it blind. You’re cooking the apples and then putting the pastry on top of the apples, and then you have to trust that the apples are cooked properly blind, like trusting in a director, and then flipping it over. Doing the old flippy roo. Yeah, that’s fun. Now the crepes, um, are something I actually, we make for the kids most mornings for breakfast. Which seems so decadent, they have no idea. that we have in England, we have a, uh, one day called Pancake, Pancake Day. Sorry, this is a national English holiday or this is a you thing? Are you kidding me right now? I’m so sorry, I’m tremendously uneducated. I didn’t know about Pancake Day. This is a real thing. Are you shitting? Are you bullshit? Are you shitting right now? You have a Pancake Day? Bro? Is this after Boxing Day and like St. Charlotte’s Day? I don’t know. Fair play. I have no idea when this day, guys, Kingsbury, what day is Pancake Day? Um, it’s around Easter sometime, isn’t it? Okay, so it’s like an Easter vibe thing. , is it? Is it like April? March, fourth March? No way. That’s Sam’s birthday. Okay. Hey bro. Pancake day was epic because you’d make crepes. Now in your, in your country, pancakes are like, your pancakes, like your silver dollar pancakes, your bam bam, you know, like duvet covers. Sure, sure, sure. We, we do crepes, which are just the thin version, the French crepes. Yeah, I mean, yeah. They do them in Sweden like that too, it’s a common, Are you Swedish? No I’m not, do I look Swedish? I feel like I look very Swedish in this, I don’t know. Yeah, I guess you are running the Swedish flag right now. Can I serve you up a creperu? Yeah, sure. So the other day We have the creme chantilly there, eat it with the berries. It’s good because we’ve got a little bit of lemon going on here, so like obviously the lemon and sugar is the vibe. There’s a lot going on. Fresh produce on this table. Okay. That deals with life, death, and produce. I wonder what you got out of Still Life, and how it affected you at the time you saw it. So this is one of those weird things happen to you in life where the woman I fell in love with, who then, she directed me in this movie, Nowhere Boy, and that’s how we met. I had, years before we had met, I had went to the Tate Modern with my parents and my sister. I could not tell you. What else was on show that day. And I remember walking through the doors and on the wall was this amazing, this beautiful frame of, um, a fruit bowl and a biro, just sitting here right next to the, you know. I guess I just sort of just pulled gravity, you know, pulled over to this, uh, what looked like a photo because it was framed like a photo and slowly but surely it starts to decay and the fruit starts to mold and decay and become furry and then mold into different versions and then into nothing over like a good few minutes. I stood in front of that piece for the entire time whilst my parents walked on to the next room, to the next room, to the next room, to the next room. And they came back round. When you finish those exhibitions, and then basically was like, tapping me on the shoulder, I was like, we gotta go home now. And I just stood, and stood in front of this piece of work. Uh, and it just It just blew my mind. And I couldn’t even tell you who the artist was at the time. Only then to find out it was the woman I married. Uh, years later. Weird, huh? Weird. Macaron? I’m a pistachio. Pistachio? I’m also a pistachio. Broski. Call us the Pistachio Bros. Immortality through art. That’s a thing that everybody since the ancient Greeks have sort of theorized about. Does that mean anything to you? People thought you should have won an Oscar for Nocturnal Animals, you didn’t get it. Does that mean your legacy isn’t as good as it could? Does your legacy live? I didn’t even get nominated. What? I know, you should have. You won the Golden Globe. You should have won the Oscar, man. Anyways, point is, Does any of that mean anything to you? Or is it about your family and the actual impact that you’ve left on the world? Someone said something to me recently, it was like, to be celebrated is nothing. But to be loved is everything. And I think, you know, like, I have to remind myself, I work myself up into a frenzy sometimes. Funny enough, it, it, it, it, it’s just, it’s this stuff that makes me go a little bit, you know, uh, that spins me out. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. What happens when you die? What’s my thought on it? I guess, I guess it really depends. You ready to get into the lightning round? What’s that? Who’s the one person dead or alive you’d want to share your actual last meal with dead or alive? Yeah, you can pick anyone, the historical Jesus. Oh, I see. Your wife, common answers not your wife, but like you know what I mean. Like, the person’s wife or husband who’s sitting there. Oh like your wife. You know, my last meal would have to be with my wife and my children. And the historical Jesus is iced out. No, he doesn’t need to be there. What song do you want to be played at your funeral? No, that aspect of the behind the scenes of death, I’ve not really, I’ve not thought that far. If you don’t choose, Push It by Salt N Pepa is the default. That’s how this works. Yeah, I guess you could go like that, you could go vibe like that. Okay, so Push It by Salt N Pepa. Uh, who would win in a fight, Nosferatu or Blade? I mean, I guess I’m supposed to say Nos, but probably Blade. Right? He’s got swords and shit. Between Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland, which Spider Man would you most want to fight? Oh, fight. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Not on screen, I’m talking real life. Like, on real life. Back alley, yeah. One of them has, has, they threatened to glass you. Did they? Yeah. I’m saying, which one of them would you most want Who said that? No, this is a hypothetical question. Wait, who the [bleep] said that? One of the Spider Men is about to glass you. Which one do you most want to fight? Um, that seems like such a rude thing to say. Well, he’s about to glass you. Um, complete the famous line from movie history. The name’s Bond. The name’s Bond. What’s this, strawberry? Not a cinephile. He doesn’t even know the line. What’s your greatest regret in life? Don’t have any regrets. You said that so convincingly and so quickly. I’ve never had a tendency of looking back. It’s almost like I can’t even look at old photos. I can’t, I don’t live in a sense of like, Oh, I wish we still lived here. I don’t feel like I, I move on. I keep moving forward. Yeah, I don’t hold on to regrets. Aaron, finally, are you happy? Yeah, I’m happy. Yeah. Are you happy? Yeah, like, happy as I can be, I think. Happy! After, after this meal. After this meal, I’m so full and happy. Um, I have a lot to be happy about. And I feel very content. No, I do. No, I know, but that’s the least happy person [bleep] to say. To say, are you happy? I have a lot to be happy about. I’m not, I’m not eel. I can tell. But I definitely, and I have bursts of, like, I’m a Gemini, right? I’m, I’m this, I’m very much a Gemini in a sense of like there are really two sides to me and and, and I, and I usually want to keep that other side, maybe, working in, in role, like, um, that can be the acting side, possibly, because that’s innate in me. I can, I can tap into that too quickly, possibly. And man, I can’t thank you enough for having this experience with me. Incredible meal, incredible insight. Truly, thank you. It was an incredible meal. By the way, you and your team, all the wonderful people who cooked this fantastic meal. These desserts, the main meal, so amazing. It’s been good. It’s been good. We got stuff to take home, but in the meantime, if you want to deliver your last words to that camera right there. Sure. What’s my last words? Oh, what are my? Whatever you want them to be, man. Oh, just at the end of your life. Nailed it. God damn right you nailed it. Everyone make sure to check out Nosferatu and Kraven the Hunter. Both out in December. Aaron, you got anything else to plug? No, you said the two films, right? Yeah, yeah. I got nothing else to plug. You gonna do more of them, like later in your life? What, more films? I don’t know, after this meal, who knows? Let’s hope so. Let’s hope so. We’ll see. Yeah, everyone go see Kraven. If not, find him at a local farmer’s market selling his vegetables. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die! But in the meantime, you can wear our Last Meals hoodie, available now at Mythical.com