Aaron Taylor-Johnson doesn't know how wife coped with him during movie shoot

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is amazed his wife Sam Taylor-Johnson put up with him while he was playing a sociopath in Nocturnal Animals.

The 26-year-old transformed his appearance and went to a dark place to play the twisted Ray Marcus, who drives a family off the road in Texas in the middle of the night and abducts the wife and daughter.

Aaron threw himself into the role by researching serial killers, growing his hair and nails, losing weight, smoking, drinking and adopting a different walk and tone of voice, and he is impressed his wife could deal with it for so long.

"Sam is a phenomenal, strong woman, but she saw this transformation, and I can't imagine how she put up with me for the duration of making this movie," he told The Sunday Times Style magazine. "There was a dark aura around me. My big fear in the beginning was that I didn't want to engage with such a character, but Tom (Ford) was able to look beyond my self-doubt and see something better."

He was bewildered that fashion designer and director Tom Ford found him the right choice for the part because he is good friends with Aaron's artist wife so knows the Kick-Ass actor socially.

"I think he was clever about being able to give me a vastly different look to what I've had before," he praised, adding Tom wanted Ray Marcus to exude the charisma and 'sex appeal' of serial killers like Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer.

The Brit was even scared of himself when he watched the film back for the first time and was surprised to discover he couldn't remember shooting some of the shocking lines or actions.

As part of the preparation, Aaron began reading the book Tony & Susan, which the film is based on, but Tom, who wrote the screenplay, told him to stop because he had a different version of Ray in mind.

"He said, 'Nope!'... I really loved that," he recalled. "Tom was very decisive, very particular about what he wanted, very honest in what he needed. And that's what our relationship was. It was the best thing I could have asked for from a director."