Godzilla is a powerful story of human courage and reconciliation in the face of titanic forces of nature. Aaron Taylor Johnson talks about doing mammoth action sequences himself and improvising dialogues
We heard you had a grilling session with director Gareth Edwards when you first met him.
The first meeting turned out to be a six-hour long one because we just clicked. I totally understood his vision and his ideas for the film, and was very taken by his genuineness. He’s a modest man, humble.
Was it stressful on large-than-life setsIJ
There were days when I was like, ‘How can you be so calmIJ There must be so much stress right now.’ He would just be so mellow. That’s what the set was like. It was the nicest job I’ve worked on in a long time because it was a happy environment. It was calm and that all comes down to the director. He’s tough as a pyramid, and he is humble, soft-spoken and charming. He worked and collaborated with me, and with Bryan, constantly. He’s someone who embraces experiments and also gave us time for it. Sometimes you have to move on quickly, just make a decision and go. In this case, Gareth was very open in being able to try to float the waves.
How was it to interact with the digital elements of the filmIJ
I embraced all of it. I did as many stunts as I could possibly do. There was nothing too extreme that I couldn’t do myself. I had a really great guy, a retired Marine named Jim Dever, who’s worked on a whole bunch of military movies before, to consult. He’d show me how to gear up, fire a gun, aim a gun, put it together, take it apart, anything military-based. He was like my army training officer. It’s kind of strange because I feel British and American army are quite different. There’s a different language. With the army, there’s that military way of speaking, of just being very matter of fact, and having just a way of talking that’s different from normal civilian speech. With the digital element, what was great about it was that there was barely any green screen on this movie. It’s quite amazing. I’ve been on films that have no major monster special effects and yet they’ve had more green screen on that than I had on this one. What’s really great about it was that it was more about location and the environment around us. We’d film in a city, and they’d dress the city and blow up cars and flip them over upside-down. And what they’d do is pan out to all the buildings that are around them, and in post-production, they’d just smash them all up. And in the film, they’d just be throwing rocks and things around you so it felt more like you were in it. You’re in the environment rather than in a couple of cars in a studio with green screen all around you where you’re having to act the environment as well as act in it.
Can you talk about working with Bryan Cranston to create the father/son dynamic between your characters, and also with Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Ford’s wife, ElleIJ
With Bryan Cranston, we were supposed to have this ever-rocky relationship of a father and son, where the years have passed with a lot of anger. But that’s hard because he’s so funny, so charming, and such a family man. You can’t help but constantly have a laugh with Bryan. I find his acting the most dynamic and inspirational. At times I question how he can have such amazing comic timing even before a take, and then, in the take, go into some deep emotional wreck; it’s beyond me. Elizabeth Olsen is naturally gifted and she’s really charming and a sweet friend. She too can just break into emotion in just a flick. I really like working with her because we work similarly.