Aaron Taylor-Johnson made the leap from actor to screenwriter with A Million Little Pieces, the adaptation of James Frey’s notorious novel that’s out in theaters this past weekend. Taylor-Johnson co-wrote the screenplay with his wife, Sam Taylor-Johnson, and he also stars in it. The actor sat down with Screen Rant to explain why the story was such a passion project and how it all came together.
This is the first film where you're credited as a writer. Can you talk to me about the process of working with Sam and James to write this story?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: It was fantastic. We were very fortunate to find out that the rights to A Million Little Pieces had reverted back to James. Because it'd been dancing around the studio for the last 15 years, and what with the controversy, they just kind of put it in the on the shelf. No one could read it, and over time different filmmakers went to it and then dropped off. I know this because Sam for the last 10 years has been wanting to make the movie, so it was always a passion project. It was always something she felt in her bones that she was going to make herself. In her mind, she said, "You'd be the perfect James."
So when it came about, we had followed up, and James had just been so easy and so open. He said, "Look, I wrote this in the spirit of art. Go make it up." He said, "I'll be there as much as you want, and I can also leave you alone. I'll be easy. Call me if you need to call me." So, from that moment on, it was this beautiful kind of trust and freedom to have creative licensing and make an artistic interpretation of the book.
And I think also, what with the controversy, it allowed us to have something to sort of break away from; to not be constrained to the book, page-by-page. Which is impossible, anyway, as it's a 400-page book that you've got to break down to 110 pages in a screenplay. Three characters go into one and things get fleshed out, and it was just beautiful. It was really easy; it was very serendipitous. This was the one that Sam had wanted to make, and she intended for me to play James.
We both put jobs on hold for about 18 months to two years, we sat down, and we just broke up into a three act structure and tried to keep everything integral to the book. We tried to just connect James's journey throughout recovery and on his road to redemption, constantly trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel and the hope whilst interacting with these characters around him and the community around him and the obstacles.
I really love the process of writing; it was just fantastic. I often sit down for 14 hours straight, drink coffee, and just smash it out. Then I pace around, read new pages, have thoughts and ideas, and go, "What if we try this?" And most of the visual scenes, that's all fantastic visual ideas from Sam. Like, the shit corridor, for instance. It's a basically a scene in the book where the walls are caving in, and James is in his head, saying, "I want to crawl back to where I feel safest." And that's that dark hole; it's the sewers, the gutters, the blackness and the darkest of dark. From that came this idea for the walls to start bleeding shit, and for him to start off all frightened and insecure and then eventually he touches the wall and goes, "Wait, I know this. This is just shit. I've been to the darkest of Hell; this should be easy. This should be a walk in the park." He starts to dance, and then he slides his way into rehab with this sort of reluctance and this arrogance.
All of that sort of stuff came into it, and it was a lot of fun putting it together. But it was generally just me and Sam sitting in the studio and bouncing around ideas, putting five cards up on the wall and pulling things down. And then also to be casting and putting up pictures of actors, all of which we luckily got out to. It was one of those beautiful moments where, after 18 months of many different drafts and financing and budget, we ended up with the script that we set out to do. And Juliette Lewis, Giovanni Ribisi, Charlie Hunnam, and Billy Bob Thornton had all come back pretty quickly to say, "We're in."
And it was just one of those moments where we just felt we were so lucky. We're pinching ourselves, "Wow, we're really going to make this movie. This is mad." I could never dreamed of anything better. And we built it from the ground up. It has been one of the most exciting experiences I've ever had, and it really takes you back into the world of independent filmmaking and how it's a collaboration. It's hard to come by.
I can't believe it only took 20 days for you to shoot the movie. That's crazy to me.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: Well, that was as many as we could get. I mean, our original script was a 30 to 35-day shoot, which would have been for us to get everything we wanted in a very ambitious script. But even the stuff that we did get in, some of that stuff wasn't even scheduled. For instance, the airplane was something we didn't even have scheduled. Because at one point, we had to make a lot of cuts. They all want to make sure; they want to look at your schedule and see that you're shooting six to seven scenes a day, which already makes everyone nervous. You're going to go over by a couple hours every day, and it's just not possible. Of course, Sam always finishes and wraps on time.
One of the most monumental scenes was the airplane, and all we could afford was six seats and a quarter of a plane. We had to cut it out of the script, and it's obviously the scene that if you ask anyone who's read the book, they'll say, "Oh, yeah, a guy wakes up on a plane with a smashed up face." And we didn't have it; we were told to cut it out. That's like a red rag to a bull when you tell Sam something like that, so for five days straight, she would wrap the crew an hour early and be able to bag enough cash to buy six seats, a little bit of roof, two windows and the floor. And then, sure enough, we finished on Friday. The crew's jumping up and down because we bought another piece of the scene to the story, and it was very much like that all the way through. Just magical sort of moments like that, where we all had to come together and work to make this thing what it is.
The production side of it was a beautiful time and a beautiful experience, too. The hardest bit was trying to figure it all out.
Marvel is launching the new What If...? series next year, with single character or single event changes. Is there any chance that we could see you reprise your role as Quicksilver, maybe a What If...? episode where he survived Age of Ultron? Or could we possibly see you in WandaVision?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: Is there any possibility? I don't know. Not this season. I think there needs to be a discussion about how to bring that character back without having repercussions. And there has been, but no, there will be no appearance. I think we're both open to possibilities with the Marvel Universe, though, as it has been over the years. Obviously, I'm aware of the Disney+ platform and all the shows that are going on, and I'm still in touch with a lot of the people. But I think it's safe to say that there is there will be no appearances in anything coming out. Quicksilver won't be appearing anytime soon.
Back to A Million Little Pieces: there's a pivotal moment of growth for James, when he accepts Leonard his father. Can you talk to me about that moment, and what it meant for James moving forward?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: I think the beautiful thing about Leonard's character is that he becomes this very close friend, and then becomes a sort of father figure. But ultimately, in the AA world, he's the mentor. You come out and you've got this partner, you've got this mentor who is your lifeline. He or she is your guidance partner, and that's kind of what Leonard does. He sort of befriends him out of all of the people that are there; he already has this attachment to him. I think he sees a lot of himself in James, as he tells him the story that he was that kid who was lost and luckily found a family with this gangster. And I think he's sort of trying to return that relationship, that role. I think he never got to be that role, and I think he wanted to be some sort of father figure.
It's a beautiful story that could definitely be a movie of its own. We didn't dive into that too much, because it's a whole other tale - I feel it's probably a standalone thing. But it was great. We were so lucky to have Billy Bob. He's just phenomenal and brings so much life into it. And I love working with him so much, because he's such a badass and such a legend. He's always got these roles that are just on the cusp and always unpredictable. But he was the most genuine, sweetest guy and a real collaborator. I admire him as a filmmaker and a writer as well, and so every now and again we'd sit down and I'd say, "Would you elevate some of this stuff?" Sure enough, we would sit down for a couple hours here and there every other week for a couple weeks, and sort of come up with some more little things to play with. It was just one of those joyous moments for me as a young actor and first-time co-writer. Those are the moments that you just cherish.
Thank you so much for your time. Aaron. I can't wait for people to see it.
A Million Little Pieces is now playing in theaters.