At this point, I think Aaron Taylor-Johnson might be the least controversial Avenger. The Age of Ultron promotional tour has not been going too well, so maybe they should just put Aaron and… Scarlett?… front and center. Send Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans home. Chris Hemsworth has – oddly enough – not been making any negative headlines either, but I suspect that’s because A) no one gives a crap about Hemsworth/Thor and B) Hemsworth and Marvel are still fighting about how much he actually has to promote these films after he was The Largely Absent Hemsworth the last go-round. Anyway, I would be fine with seeing more of Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He’s not “managed” to a crazy degree, but he’s also not a bad kid. He’s got a nice interview with The Guardian – go here to read. Some highlights:

His new beard: “I got into beards right in the middle of the hipster boom. But that’s not why I’m doing this.”

Being told he resembles a fashionable Hasidic Jew. “That was nice because I have really curly hair and also I’m Jewish.”

He wants to do more dramas: “Those scripts, those sorts of films, they’re gems that come around every so often and when they do, yeah, of course, I’d love to do them. People look at stuff like Godzilla and Avengers and think I only do blockbusters, or however you wanna put it, but in reality I can make double or triple what I got paid for Avengers by doing other stuff – there are other options but I don’t want to work with this person or that person and so I don’t do it. There are other ways to make more money. [Plus,] I know when I’ve missed too many school runs. We’re lucky that we have the financial luxury not to have to be working all the time.”

How much he got paid for Ultron: “I can’t really discuss that. Let’s just say I got paid very nicely. The money didn’t have a major effect on me. It was really down to spending time speaking to Joss [Whedon, the writer-director] and talking it over. It’s much more important to me to consider what I could do in the film and who I’m working with.”

Changing his name when he married Sam: “It was so important to me. Actually I wanted it on Savages as well but they told me the posters had already gone out. Then they said: ‘Look, we hired Aaron Johnson.’” He shrugs. When the same thing almost happened on Anna Karenina, he dug his heels in. “I said: ‘I want it changed! This is important.’” But how did it actually feel? “It felt beautiful,” he sighs. “It felt right.”

[From The Guardian]

I love that about changing his name – I wish more men felt that way about changing their names when they get married. Sam Taylor Johnson used to be Sam Taylor Wood – that was her married name from her first marriage, and she used it professionally too. So when Sam married Aaron Johnson, they became the Taylor Johnsons. And it does feel right. You know what I’ve always hoped? I know Angelina Jolie goes by Angelina Jolie-Pitt now, but I’ve always hoped that Brad goes by Jolie-Pitt too. That would be amazing.

Photos courtesy of WENN.