Taylor Kitsch
"Leaping to New Heights"
Taylor Kitsch’s began his career as a model, before his role as Tim Riggins on the NBC TV drama Friday Night Lights made him famous. After already scoring early buzz as superhero Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the 30 year-old Canadian hopes to continue to make his mark as a Hollywood man of action as the title character in the science-fiction adventure John Carter.
The film is based on the first book, A Princess Of Mars, in the pulp fiction serial series written by Tarzan writer Edgar Rice Burroughs known as Barsoom, about a Confederate soldier who ends up on Mars. Kitsch told us how he prepared for the making of the film version.
“The books were what I used, or tried to tie up into as much I could before I had the script because they didn’t give me the script until after the test, really,” Taylor recalls, “I had the scene, a couple scenes for the test out of the script obviously, um, and then you use the script as your bible, when you get it. But for me, like I said, to go full circle with that, what I used, I’d just latch on to the emotional part of it. If that journey with Carter is not there emotionally, this movie is forgettable, and it is what it is. It can be run of the mill, you know, with anything else. And with [director] Andrew Stanton, that is priority number one is that beaten down guy, that cause is completely stripped from him in the beginning of the film. And so that’s everything to me, so I latched on to the Civil War.”
“I mean that I studied with historians at the University of Texas,” he adds, “And I studied the Civil War and immersed myself with books and letters of uh, Civil War soldiers. And um, it’s funny because you just got to with whatever prep, if it’s bang,
Taylor Kitsch
"Leaping to New Heights"
John Carter is the first live-action film of director Andrew Stanton, who is best known for doing the stories for Pixar’s animated films like the Toy Story series and A Bug’s Life and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E. Taylor talks about what makes Stanton stand apart from other filmmakers.
“Story first, story second, story third,” Kitsch replies, “Yeah, that’s everything to him. Um, and I mean you got to – I mean that script is incredible. For all these lines that are thrown away at the beginning, and for them to come full circle like that, at the end, that twist at the end, um, and again, going back to that emotional toll that it is rare to have that much story-driven character.”
“And I think it says a lot when you can get these guys that can carry their own film in their own right, to sign up and come in and support it,” he continues, “Brian Cranston coming in for a four-scener, Mark Strong coming in, Willem Dafoe playing this guy, you know, and Sam Morten, it says a lot to what he’s done and created, that all these people want to come and be a part of. It was fun.”
Kitsch was asked how he felt about playing his
Taylor Kitsch
"Leaping to New Heights"
“I am comfortable with it,” he says, “It’s really the character. It just comes down to me surrounding myself with great people, being better for it, and um, you know, I think the next gig, we’re gonna sign up to do supporting then. I have no problem doing a one-two scene in a film as well.”
“It’s just a matter of the work and being better for it at the end of the day,” Taylor continues, “So I think I get a kick. If anybody knows me from FNL to Bang-Bang Club, it’s like I love that. It’s more character-driven stuff, and it’s like can he do this and that, and I just get a kick out of it because, you know, it’s not what it’s about.”
Taylor talks about the rather impressive physique that he had to sport to play John Carter.
“I was raised playing hockey my whole life,” Kitsch says, “I love it. I mean that’s quite extreme. I don’t walk around looking like that. It takes your life, you know, it just – it really is, you know, 4:30 a.m. workouts, and then you work out all day on set, in between takes, and then the diet is the most boring diet you could ever imagine. Dry chicken breast with yams, brown rice, and protein shakes, basically, and you flood your body with water.”
Kitsch talks about the injuries he had to do for the film’s action scenes.
“I started with a high ankle sprain, which was tough,” Taylor reveals, “Because obviously there’s jumps and all that kind of stuff, but it was the bizarre things that came into play that were really little things like Woola jumping on me, and obviously, there’s no Woola, so you through yourself onto the ground. We were in a live setting on Lake Powell, so it was on a rock. And I threw myself down and uh,
Taylor Kitsch
"Leaping to New Heights"
“And it was just like we’re just all chilling, waiting for my left arm to de-numb,” he adds, “ But it was like those weird little things, but nothing too crazy. I cut my chest real well in this fight sequence on one of these air ships because they have all this armor, and the armor literally stuck in and pulled or cut it quite intensely, like I was leaking pretty good. But stuff like that, but nothing. I cut some people open, but that was probably me just being unprofessional.”
Taylor also talked about the reshoots that had to be done for John Carter.
“The reshoots, we did it in LA, but we built the huge set, and then there is green screen about 80% around you,” Kitsch says, “I mean I think there’s that negative stigma with reshoots, too, but I mean it’s like why wouldn’t you want to go back and make anything better? If you had an opportunity, regardless of any film, but just if you have an opportunity to make it better, I mean do it. It’s as no-brainer.”
Taylor talks about working with Lynn Collins, who plays the Dejah Thoris, the princess of Helium.
“I think it just says a lot about Collins, man, she’s so good,” he says of her, “And I think when you can get with another actor that doesn’t want to come out, basically there’s certain actors that you work with that want the best of the scene, and not the best of them in the scene.”
“And she’s the best of the scene,” Kitsch adds, “How can we make this scene the best it potentially can be? And when you work with someone like that, the giving and taking is just so great, and the trust is immense, so you take more risks because I can fall and she’ll be there, or vice versa. So with her,
Taylor Kitsch
"Leaping to New Heights"
Finally, Kitsch talks about working with filmmaker Oliver Stone on his new crime-drama film Savages, which is set for release this summer on July 6.
“I’m gonna just say it’s an unapologetic movie that you’re gonna dig,” Taylor says of the film, “I’d say Pulp Fiction meets Goodfellas, but more violent.”
