Here's How 'Kraven' Star Aaron Taylor-Johnson Was Saved By His Wife

31-year-old actor, Aaron Taylor-Johnson showed an impressive range that awarded him praise and success in the entertainment industry. Yet, despite his many accolades, there was a time when the superstar spiraled down a self-destructive path.

Thankfully, the "Kick-Ass" actor’s wife managed to save him from sabotaging himself completely.

As with several actors, Taylor-Johnson started a foray into his acting career at a very young age. He started out in plays at the age of six, before he made the leap to film and television. He also starred in blockbuster movies such as "Nowhere Boy" and "Kick-Ass," which gave him international stardom on a gold platter.

Till today, Taylor-Johnson continues to prove himself as an iconic actor with roles like Ray in "Nocturnal Animals," where he played the role of an unhinged psychopath.

In 2015, he played the role of Quicksilver in "Avengers Age of Ultron." In 2023, however, he’d dip into the Marvel Universe again as Spiderman’s nemesis, Kraven.

According to E-News, Taylor-Johnson gave an honest interview to Nylon magazine about the lifestyle he lived before meeting his wife.

"I was pretty self-destructive at one point,” Taylor-Johnson admitted. “I used to smoke 30 [cigarettes] a day, used to f**** drink non-stop. I’ve always been able to be on the f**** edge-be on the line, but then pull myself back.”

Taylor-Johnson then mentioned that he brought his wild antics into auditions for programs like Nickelodeon, where he pretended to be an American only to out himself as a Londoner once the audition was over. He went to a few auditions a day-- some of them were auditions for movies but a lot were for television shows.

“It was kind of like learning how to pull,” he said of his past. “It was like, how do you get into a bar and point out the fittest girl and then just go, ‘I’ll have her by the end of the night?’ I was at that age where that was kind of. I stopped when I met Sam," the "Kraven" star concluded.

The pair met through the 2009 film "Nowhere Boy." In a 2017 interview with The Sunday Times UK, Sam (née Taylor-Wood) confessed that they almost didn't meet because Johnson was only available to audition on a date that she was absent. This was because he had a limited schedule while he was filming "Kick-Ass."

Meanwhile, Sam and her first husband split after 11 years of marriage and she was moving out of their shared home on the day that Taylor-Johnson was free. So, he auditioned for the biopic at her house.

"We had this intense connection," Sam Taylor-Johnson told the outlet of working with the young actor. "He was very intense and absolutely mind made-up," she said of how their relationship blossomed.

The director also told The Telegraph UK that the couple clicked from the start. "We were very professional through the entire film," the lovers told Harper's Bazaar in 2019. "No funny business at all."

Sam also said that "everyone on set knew" that they had a connection. They shared two daughters together, in addition to two daughters from Sam's previous marriage.

After they grew close on the set of the movie titled "Nowhere Boy," the star and the director announced their engagement as well as her pregnancy following the movie’s premiere.

After the birth of their second child, they tied the nuptial knot in May 2012. They combined their last names and became Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson.

The age difference between the couple remained a bone of contention for many online, however, as the tie went on, they moved on from it. Although the "Kraven' star is now 31 years old, during the time he met Sam, he was only about 18 or 19.

Conversely, Sam was already in her 40s during the production of "Nowhere Boy."

Samantha Taylor-Johnson is a British filmmaker and photographer. Her directorial feature film debut was 2009's "Nowhere Boy." It was a film based on the childhood experiences of the Beatles songwriter and singer, John Lennon.

She was born in Croydon, London. Her father, David, left the family when she was nine and her mother, Geraldine, was a yoga teacher and astrologist. She had a younger sister, Ashley, and a maternal half-brother named Kristian.

She grew up near Streatham Common in South London until her parents' divorce. The family then moved into an old schoolhouse in Jarvis Brook and Samantha went to Beacon Community College. She later attended Goldsmiths, University of London.

Sam initially married art dealer and gallerist Jay Jopling, in 1997 and they had two daughters together. In September 2008, the couple announced that they were separating amicably after 11 years of marriage.