At the ripe old age of 26, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is setting the bar pretty high for feminist fatherhood.
The British actor, whose Iraq-set thriller “The Wall” opens Friday, is the dedicated dad of two daughters, 5 and 6, with his 50-year-old director wife Sam, as well as stepdad to her two daughters, 20 and 11, from a previous marriage. They met when she directed him in the 2009 John Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy.”
He’s fresh off a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe win for last year’s “Nocturnal Animals,” but Taylor-Johnson says he wouldn’t be averse to ditching his acting career to be a stay-at-home father.
“I much prefer being a parent to working,” he told The Post. “Doesn’t everybody? The best time I have is with my kids, experiencing their growth and their life with them. I think it’s important to have time to enjoy that.”
Taylor-Johnson, whose previous work includes major roles in movies as varied as “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Anna Karenina,” has attracted attention throughout his nearly five-year marriage, largely due to the 23-year age gap; also, unlike many men, he changed his name along with his wife after saying “I do” (he was previously Aaron Johnson, while she was Sam Taylor-Wood).
Although he may be a hot property in Hollywood, he has no interest in taking every choice role that comes his way. “I do only one job a year,” he says, “and the rest of the time I don’t do anything. I know it’s a luxury to be able to do that.”
Still, he says the work he does do is “intense” — and “The Wall,” directed by Doug Liman (”The Bourne Identity,” “Edge of Tomorrow”), is no exception.
Taylor-Johnson plays an American soldier in 2007 Iraq, stranded in the desert by a sniper. It’s largely a one-man performance, with Taylor-Johnson’s character reluctantly talking to the sniper via walkie-talkie as he bleeds out and dehydrates behind a crumbling wall. (John Cena also appears, but minimally.)
“It’s not the Hollywood ending that you’re expecting,” Taylor-Johnson says, “which is very Doug. It’s about the nature of not giving up, about being pushed to your limit and constantly getting up again, knowing that you tried every angle.”
He says the production triple-checked its facts: “Every little detail has been cross-examined by military guys. I spent a lot of time with various military people; I went to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, one of the top sniper schools, and spent some time with them.”
And when it all wrapped up, he headed back home to his family. “I could go from job to job,” he says. “The opportunities are there. But I just have no interest in being busy like that and missing life at home.”