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"\n\n They do things big in Texas, and now so does Taylor Kitsch. Perhaps those four years shooting Friday Night Lights in Austin rubbed off, but the actor is taking a giant leap from ensemble parts to leading-man roles in two ginormous (as in budgeted over $200 million) films: March's Martian epic John Carter and May's big-things-blowing-up blockbuster Battleship, co-starring Liam Neeson and Rihanna. His smallest film? Oliver Stone's drug cartel crime film The Savages. \"This year is really make-or-break,\" Kitsch concedes. John Carter, directed by Pixar genius Andrew Stanton (Wall-E), stars Kitsch as a Confederate soldier zapped to Mars. (The character is from a 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs serial that George Lucas has said inspired Star Wars.) Battleship transforms the board game into an alien invasion on the high seas\u2014one of those so-inane-it-might-work ideas, especially in the hands of director Peter Berg, creator of Friday Night Lights.\" Off-camera, the Canadian actor is making like Tim Riggins and staying in Texas, where he's building his dream house in Austin. \"Texas forever,\" drawls Kitsch, reprising his Friday Night Lights money line. \"It looks like it's going to be that way, too.\" We spoke to Kitsch about his three films, his new home, and his patented shoelace-tying technique, which may just change your life.\n\nGQ: You're from Canada, but you've been living in Texas ever since Friday Night Lights. What surprised you when you first moved down here?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: I mean, even after playing Riggs, if I go to a high school football game now and see 15,000 people watching 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds play, it's incredible. That's pressure on those kids. I love it.\n\nGQ: You nearly went pro as a hockey player, right?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: I did. I played pretty darn competitive-level hockey. Then the good old knee injury. Obviously, it's a blessing in disguise, but growing up Canadian, that's our religion, that's our football. I'm a small-town Canadian cat, so I could relate to Riggs quickly and easily.\n\nGQ: Our photoshoot was based on James Dean and Giant. What do you make of Dean?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Dean is just an icon. Timeless. That's the kind of work you want to do as an actor. If 15, 20, 30 years after I'm gone you could turn on a movie that I've been a part of? At the end of the day, that's all you're going to have. The guys I look up to, a Daniel Day, a Penn, they make you work as a viewer. I admire an actor that can do a lot with doing nothing really, for the most part. I like doing a lot by doing so little. And I really loved that about Riggs. You just want to shake him sometimes.\n\nGQ: Do you like Texan fashion?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: It's just real. It's comfortable, it's gritty, it's not flashy, it's blue-collar. I have like 20 snap-up shirts in my closet, and I never, never would have thought before FNL would I have had that.\n\nGQ: Are there other Texan things you've gotten into?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: I've always been a big country guy. There's a lot of Texas artists\u2014Randy Rogers, of course, and Pat Green come to mind. There's some watering holes within Austin I love. A good old rodeo never hurt anyone. And those Texas sunsets... I work a lot in Africa: Texas and Africa have the best sunsets on the planet, that I've ever seen.\n\nGQ: Is that why you're settling in Austin and building a house there? Why not L.A.?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Oh, God, I could give you a million reasons why not L.A. I know actors that love the celebrity. For me, it's tough because you're doing six months of press. That's why you put all the work in and almost fucking kill yourself, because if you've got to talk about it a million times, you'd better be proud. And I can't work. I lost a job that I wish I could have been a part of\u2014three scenes in a character-driven movie that I'd murder to be a part of. But you sound like you're playing the violin when you say it. Relationships and friends go to the wayside. You get angry because it's press that's pulling you and not the work. And how do you fucking build a relationship with a gal that you care for and say, \"Hey, I'm going to be gone for eight weeks. I expect you to have the same feelings as right now in eight weeks. But I'll be in Japan, Russia, Spain...\" You can't expect it. It's unfair. I think I chose to build in Austin because, in Austin, I can come and escape and be myself.\n\nGQ: This year you have three big films that will change your career, for better or worse. Is building a house in Austin and putting down roots a reaction to that?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: I think so. I think even unconsciously I know this house is going to represent some kind of cave that I'll want to get back into: Peace of mind, because it's chaos. Hugh [Jackman], he's a good mate of mine. I think we both attribute [being more grounded] to getting the late starts, to being 30, 29, 28 and having a good sense of self before all this shit hits, so you know that what you're seeing is ridiculous. That it's not real. And you know by then that there's some things that you should fight for.\n\nGQ: So you're well aware of what a crazy year this is? To have three leading roles all in high-profile films?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: 2012 is really make-or-break, isn't it? I mean you've got John Carter and then you got Battleship, and then we end with a true bang in Savages with Oliver Stone. What are you gonna say? I mean, if Oliver Stone calls you you're going to fucking go. Pete Berg calls you, you should go. Andrew Stanton asks me to be an extra in this Indie he's doing? You want me to get coffee on the way to the set?\n\nGQ: Battleship and John Carter are big, expensive movies.\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Yeah. Some of the biggest movies the studios, arguably, have ever done. Knock on wood, I hope to be doing these two franchises and to go on to do some passion stuff.\n\nGQ: Nobody knows what to expect from Andrew Stanton. Wall-E was amazing, but this is new territory. He's never worked with actors.\n\n Taylor Kitsch: But he has though! He's working with fucking Tom Hanks! When I met him, he really just let me go, and trusted me to do my own thing. Then I walk into his London office and there are 12 by 10 cue cards all the way around the top of his office outlining the emotional arc of John Carter. I'm like, 'Why the fuck did I do any homework?' This guy had every moment right there on his wall.\n\nGQ: What homework did you do?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: I really focused on the loss of John Carter's family. I sat down with these historians in Texas about the Civil War because John comes from there. Then I read a ton of books, a lot of letters of former soldiers that would write back home. Brutal. It just taught me a lot. Even the way he fights... They wanted me to fence. After reading all this, I said there's no fucking way I'm going to play John and be fencing. I want him gritty. He's so raw emotionally, I want him to be emotionally intense when he's fighting.\n\nGQ: And how did you actually film those Martian jumps?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: We're on some dry lake bed in the middle of nowhere in Utah. We had two cranes about maybe 500 feet apart. I was doing 60-foot jumps on that wire. No one knows this story either. But Stanton and I were living at base camp, on this dry lake bed. The rest of the crew wasn't. It's like, \"Oh fuck, man\u2014this sounds like a sweet idea. When else would you ever get to do that?\" Oh my God, big mistake, man. Huge mistake.\n\nGQ: Why?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Well, there's nice trailers: a 40-inch TV in your trailer, a bed, a full shower. You're like, \"Fuck man, I'm living the dream.\" And once you get wrapped, you're home. There's not one or two hours of travel, like the rest of the crew. One night, I'm not upset, but the shower is basically pissing on you and it's ice cold. You're like, \"Whatever, I'm just going to throw in a movie.\" No electricity. And you're on this lake bed, so there's nothing really stopping the wind. 80-mile-an-hour winds. In the dark. What are you going to do? I had a cold one. Then there's this screaming wind an I'm bracing myself because it feels like the whole trailer is going to be chucked up in the air: Oh my god, oh my god. Then I go to the middle of the trailer because I think maybe that's the safest spot and I end up sleeping on the couch, maybe an hour, tops. The next morning, Stanton looks terrible too. We had the exact same experience. He got up, moved to the middle of the trailer, had a Corona, didn't sleep.\n\nGQ: After that, did you ditch the trailer?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Oh, fuck yeah. Believe it.\n\nGQ: Later this summer, you'll star with Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta in Oliver Stone's Savages. Cartels and drugs\u2014it sounds like a pretty brutal crime thriller.\n\n Taylor Kitsch: It's a retro Stone ordeal. Travolta was saying that he hasn't read a script like this since Pulp Fiction. I play the messed-up Navy Seal. I'm doing scenes where I'm heisting cars, blowing cars up, shooting guys. There's a scene where I slice a guy's throat, four seconds. We had a Seal on set who said it was just that simple: He hides a knife down his arm and he asks for the time. The guy rolls the window down, he drags the knife across his throat, puts the knife in his pocket, and he's in. Four seconds. Benicio is just matter-of-factly decapitating people. I kept asking Oliver to write more scenes with me and Benicio. He's like, \"Kitsch, I am already trying to bring this movie down. I can't just add a twelve minute scene with you and Benicio.\"\n\nGQ: And for Battleship, in May, you and director Peter Berg are back together. What was it like when he called you for that movie?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: It was funny. I never told this story, even to Pete. We were on my boat in Austin. I ask, \"What are you doing next?\" He goes, \"Battleship,\" in the Pete Berg manner that he does. Just confident. I'm like, \"Battleship? Really?\" He's like, \"Yeah. It's going to be insane. It's going to be bad-ass.\" I didn't really think, \"I got to do this.\" Especially with someone you want to work with you can never really be like, \"Hey, can I work with you?\"\n\nGQ: You want them to want to work with you.\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Yeah. Then I was in London much later, and he calls and says, \"I'm going to fly up to London and talk to you.\" Pete's like that, man. If he wants anything in life he'll get it. We're very similar in that way. I think he's been an underdog. That's all I've known as well. Just being that guy who's just come out of nowhere.\n\nGQ: How do you see yourself as an underdog?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: The Riggins casting, man, was last minute. I had to put myself on tape by 2:00 on Thursday from Vancouver. I e-mailed it to them, traveled down on Sunday to read. There was one guy left reading for Riggins. He thought he had it, obviously, being the only fucking guy. So I come into this boardroom. There's this cocky guy sitting across from me, like, \"What are you reading for?\" Two hours later you're Tim Riggins.\n\nGQ: You and Berg sound pretty tight. And he let you improvise a lot on that set, didn't he?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Pete was beyond collaborative. He'd send me stuff and say, \"I want you to tear this apart so hard. I want you to come down on this scene as hard as you can: Just rip it in half. Just whatever you think is wrong with it, change it. If you hate it, tell me.\" He has a very endearing quality, and he can fucking piss you off. I know I pissed him off too by challenging him. On Battleship, I'd be arguing over the story. The funny thing is, he taught us that. He's the one that said, \"Push the boundaries. Challenge the director. Challenge the writers. You yourself know these characters more than anyone. Stand your ground.\" On Battleship, he had this moment where he's like, \"I almost fucking regret teaching you that. Just do it, will you?\" We both just died laughing. Full circle.\n\nGQ: To end on a very important note, while we were shooting, you shared a fashion tip for us at GQ. A better way to tie your shoelaces. You loop the strings around one extra time before you make a bow, and then they don't slip loose, right?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: I play in a men's league hockey in Austin. And I'm like, \"Gentlemen, listen up. This is going to change your fucking life...\" I learned when it was my Dad tying my skates, like seven or eight. Instead of going around once, you do it twice. All you've got to remember: \"Just go around one more. Just one more.\"\n\nGQ: What if you go around three times?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: No. It gets awkward if you do it another one.\n\nGQ: It's been tested?\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Oh, yeah. It's a patent: Just go one more. Good old hockey background: It comes in handy. Dress shoes' laces always come loose. Not if you just go around one more.\n\nGQ: We'll call it The Kitsch.\n\n Taylor Kitsch: Let's make an app. A $4.88 app. All the languages. Make it worldwide. My sweet claim to fame. Fucking loser.... Yeah. That acting stuff's all great, but seriously, will you just go around one more? Tie your laces right."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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