Here's How Aaron Taylor-Johnson Made It Big In Hollywood And Earned His $16 Million Fortune

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Aaron Taylor-Johnson hails from High Wycombe, England, where he studied various dance and music forms in high school. He began acting at just six years of age and made his television debut in 2004 before appearing as child characters in films. His breakthrough role came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, starring in the John Lennon epic. His performance as the lead in the superhero comic-turned-movie Kick-Ass earned him commercial success. The actor made several appearances in movies and television shows, but he earned global fame after starring as Quicksilver in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Taylor-Johnson has earned many accolades for his art house films and shows.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has forayed into starring in independent and high-budget films and even co-produced projects. He has not only taken on one Marvel character but also portrayed another superhero on the screen. Let’s take a look at how Aaron Taylor-Johnson started a career that began with small performances and earned a massive net worth of $16 million.

Starting Young

Born in England, Aaron Taylor-Johnson attended the Jackie Palmer Stage School, wherein he grew his talent for stage acting. He participated in extracurricular activities, including acrobatics, dance forms, singing, and drama. At 6, the young actor made his debut in the London production of Macbeth playing the role of Macduff. From 2000, he regularly participated in plays and even played in famous playwright Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons. During the early years, Taylor-Johnson often played the younger version of the lead characters. In 2003, he starred in Shanghai Knights as a young Charlie Chaplin and as a young Edward Norton in The Illusionist.

In 2009, Sam Taylor-Johnson made her directorial debut in the feature film Nowhere Boy, the film about a teenage John Lennon. According to Insider, Taylor-Johnson bagged the role and received positive reviews for portraying the legendary character. He won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer and became a prominent up-and-coming actor. The success in Nowhere Boy slowly shaped the actor into a leading man. A year later, he was cast in the superhero comic book film Kick-Ass as Dave Lizewski alongside Chloë Grace Moretz. It grossed $96.2 million at the box office and even earned him a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination.

Entering The MCU

Aaron Taylor-Johnson received his first big-time leading role in Joe Wright-directed historical romance film Anna Karenina. He portrayed the role of Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, who has an affair with Keira Knightley’s titular character, as noted by Screen Rant. The same year, he took on a role in a contrasting genre of action thriller HitFix film Savages. He portrayed the lead role of Ben in the Oliver Stone direction and received favorable reviews for his performance. Taylor-Johnson also reprised his role of Dave Lizewski in the sequel Kick-Ass 2, which is set a few years after the first film's events.

While the actor had earned recognition and critical praise from his performances in arthouse and commercial movies, Aaron Taylor-Johnson received the role of a lifetime when he was cast in Avengers: Age Of Ultron as Quicksilver. He was seen in a small post-credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier before reprising a starring role in the Avengers film. As mentioned by Collider, the actor was cast as the brother of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, and the pair went through dialect training before shooting began. The film went on to gross a whopping $1.403 billion at the worldwide box office.

Performances That Earned Critical Acclaim

He reunited with Elizabeth Olsen for Godzilla, wherein the pair played spouses. The monster film served as a reboot and the 30th film of the series. Since the success of Age Of Ultron, Taylor-Johnson was brought into the spotlight and became a global star. His varied performances caught the eye of director/fashion designer Tom Ford who cast him in the neo-noir thriller Nocturnal Animals. Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon, Taylor-Johnson won a Golden Globe for his performance as a supporting actor, as stated by Celebrity Net Worth.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson also ventured into production and screenwriting as he co-wrote the drama A Million Little Pieces with his wife, Sam Taylor-Johnson, and starred as the lead, James Frey. He was cast in a supporting role as Ives in Christopher Nolan’s ambitious spy thriller Tenet which was released in 2020. Taylor-Johnson played a small but significant role as a military commander in the film. The actor has also starred in The King’s Man and Bullet Train in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson went from working as a young version of characters to becoming a leading man in Hollywood, known for his stellar acting range for playing every kind of character in the wheelhouse. The actor has taken on another Marvel role as Kraven in Kraven The Hunter, which is set to release in 2023.

Sources: Insider, Screen Rant, Collider, Celebrity Net Worth