Why Sam Taylor-Johnson Thinks Focus on Relationship Age-Gaps “Strange”

Sam Taylor-Johnson thinks age-gap storylines are fifty shades of overdone. 

When asked whether she and husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is 23 years her junior, are interested in watching “May December” movies—a phrase which refer to romantic relationships with significant age gaps—the Fifty Shades of Grey director had a ready answer. 

“Not at all,” Sam, 57, told Time in an interview published May 17. “I think Aaron would say the same. Neither of us look at each other in that way. It’s just a connection of souls and hearts and our life is our life where we’re just moving through it in a gorgeous loving way.”

She continued, “When people make films, or talk about it or question it or dissect it, it is so strange to me. When people fall in love, they fall in love.”

This is not the first time Aaron, 33, and Sam—who are parents to daughters Wylda, 13, and Romy Hero, 11, as well as Angelica, 25, and Jessie, 15, from Sam’s first marriage to Jay Jopling—have reacted to comments or the public’s perception of their 12-year marriage. 

Just two months ago, Aaron pointed out that for someone whose career began at age 6, deciding to get married at the age of 22 isn’t so unusual.