Taylor Kitsch attends the American Veteran’s Center’s “American Valor: A Salute to Our Heroes” annual gala at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on November 9, 2024 in Washington, DC.Photo:Paul Morigi/Getty
Paul Morigi/Getty
Taylor Kitschhas a goal for 2025: “Got to have a little bit more of a life.”
In the years since he first shot to fame as beloved bad boyTim Rigginsin the first season ofFriday Night Lightsin 2006, the actor, 43, tells PEOPLE he’s struggled to balance his career and personal life.
“There’s never going to be a balance,” he admits. “But I’m more conscious of the lack of balance now in my 40s than I was in my 20s and 30s.”
Through the years, Kitsch has had to relocate to places across the globe for months at a time to film projects (he recently shot his new Netflix WesternAmerican Primevalin Santa Fe, N.M., and the second season of Amazon Prime Video’sThe Terminal Listin Hungary).The nomadic nature of his job, he says, often allows his relationships to fall “to the wayside.”
Taylor Kitsch in ‘Friday Night Lights’ in 2006.NBC Universal/Imagine Television/Getty Images
NBC Universal/Imagine Television/Getty Images
“I was telling a buddy who’s an actor, ‘Man, I can’t even get a dog yet,'” Kitsch recalls. “He was like, ‘Man, I can’t even buy more than four bananas, because that’s how great my lack of commitment is.’ And it’s all a choice, and I think as you get older, you’re like, ‘Okay, you got to find these balances because life just goes so fast.'”
“The catch-22 is I keep getting these great, fulfilling jobs,” he continues. “It’s like, it does make me happy, and I love what I do. They’re very intense roles, so you need to be super myopic doing them, and you got to push your relationships and everything else to the side.”
When choosing jobs now, Kitsch says he looks for projects that are “big risks.”
“I want to keep pushing and make sure I’m not getting comfortable,” he says. “It’s so much to go to work and you sacrifice a lot, willingly, so it better be worth it. Now, it’s about the right stories and the people I’m working with. I’m way more comfortable with myself and who I am as a person and as an actor.”
(L to R) Shawnee Pourier as Two Moons, Taylor Kitsch as Isaac, Betty Gilpin as Sara Rowell and Preston Mota as Devin Rowell in ‘American Primeval’.Netflix
Netflix
“I didn’t even know sober escapes existed until I had the crash course with my sis,” he says. “I was like, ‘Man, it sounds incredible to offer people a chance to reconnect in nature and slow things down.'”
Courtesy Taylor Kitsch
During time off, Kitsch often takes his van to the backcountry for fly-fishing or photographing wildlife.
“After you do jobs that are intense likePrimeval, you need a breath,” he says. “There’s no better place for that.”
And next month, he’ll be making a big step towards his 2025 goal.
“I’m going to Patagonia with two of my best friends on a two-week motorcycle ride to photograph the pumas,” he says. “It’s those things I want to start doing a lot more of.”
source: people.com
