Harper\'s Bazaar USA - 12.2019

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“In the 10 years we’ve been together,

we’ve only been apart for maybe

two or three days.”—Sam Taylor-Johnson

“We live behind walls. Literally, figuratively,

and deliberately. You’ll never see

our children or any of our most

personal moments on social media

or in the press.”—Aaron Taylor-Johnson

S

am Taylor-Johnson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson both

laugh, share a lingering kiss. They’re in the court-

yard of their lush, art-filled home, a sprawling

Spanish-style villa at the foot of a canyon in the

Hollywood Hills, hidden behind a 12-foot wall at

the end of a dead-end street. They have one of

Hollywood’s great love stories, one that rivals those

of Bogie and Bacall, Taylor and Burton, Steve McQueen and Ali

MacGraw, but one that is somehow more beautiful because it hasn’t

been played out in the public eye. They met in 2008 during the

casting for Nowhere Boy, the critically acclaimed John Lennon biopic

that Sam directed and Aaron starred in as the teenage Lennon. They

now share four daughters and live between L.A. and wherever one

of them might be shooting a film.

“We live behind walls,” Aaron says. “Literally, figuratively, and

deliberately. You’ll never see our children or any of our most personal

moments on social media or in the press. We have our professional

lives and our life together, and we keep them apart.” Except when

those things intersect, as they did when they met, and in 2018,

when they made my book A Million Little Pieces into a film.

“We always wanted to replicate that experience, to do something

that had that type of intensity, to make another film together,” Sam

says, taking Aaron’s hand.

Aaron smiles at her. It’s a true smile—a big smile. One filled with

love and respect and admiration. “We had a few opportunities. But

nothing felt right. Or something bigger would come along. For

Sam, Fifty Shades [of Grey], or Nocturnal Animals for me. But it was

always there. What are we going to do together?”

Sam had read A Million Little Pieces in 2003, when it was first

released. And she had tracked the various attempts to film it over

the years. “I had just moved to CAA. And my agent, good old John

Garvey, called me and asked if I had ever read it. And I was like,

‘Oh, my God, that’s what I want to do. Why, what do you know?’

And he said, ‘The rights have just been reverted back to the author,

and I thought it might be up your alley.’ I laughed and said, ‘I have

the author’s e-mail here. Just give me a second, I’m going to call

you back.’ Twenty minutes later, we were on the phone, and you

gave me the rights. And Aaron and I had our project.”

Though neither were writers, they decided to write the screen-

play together. As they speak about their process, they don’t look at

me but at each other, clearly enamored. “We had a studio opposite

David Hockney’s place where I was making art, and it became our

writing office,” says Sam, to which Aaron immediately responds,

“We had cards everywhere, and we were structurally trying to lay

out the story.” To which Sam, smiling widely, says, “Aaron would

be sitting at his desk, and he could work for 10, 12, 14 hours straight.”

Says Aaron, “Sam was like a caged tiger, pacing and throwing out

idea after idea.”

Once they had a script, they found financiers, cast the film with

Aaron playing the lead alongside Billy Bob Thornton, Charlie

Hunnam, Juliette Lewis, Giovanni Ribisi, and Odessa Young, and

started shooting at a college campus in Pomona, about an hour east

of L.A. “Initially, the hardest thing was that it was the first time both

Mommy and Daddy were working at the same time,” Sam says. And

with a tight schedule of 20 days, they worked long hours with both

cast and crew doing the film at cut rates. “The actors and crew were

saying, ‘One for the soul, we’ll do the next one for the money, this

one for the soul.’ That felt like the spirit of it.”

And with the film being released this past August in the U.K.

and coming to theaters in the U.S. in December, I ask them if they

want to do it again. Both of them laugh, glance at each other, still

holding hands. Aaron smiles. “You want to do it again, right?” She

says, “It was the best thing we’ve ever done.” Aaron nods. “Even

better because we did it together.” She agrees. “The best.” I ask

where they see themselves in 20 years. They each look to the other

to respond, then Aaron turns back to me. “A remote island some-

where.” Sam nods. “Maybe the Hebrides?”

Aaron looks back at her. “Realistically, hopefully still doing this,

but only like we did on this one, with each other.”

Sam looks at him for a long moment, taking him in. “I love you.”

He leans in, kisses her. “I love you too.”

They keep kissing. Doesn’t matter that I’m there, that anyone

would be there. They keep kissing. Love. ■

Doubleheader. Camisole, Hanro. Earrings, her own.

See Where to Buy for shopping details. Hair: Rachel Lee for Mr. Smith; makeup: Lisa Storey; manicure: Lisa Jachno for Chanel Le Vernis; grooming:

Lucy Halperin for Tom Ford and REN Clean Skincare; production: Paul Preiss for Preiss Creative; set design: Evan Jourden.