Taylor Kitsch is a simple man with simple pleasures. When he’s not acting, he likes riding his motorcycle, exploring the great outdoors and drinking a glass of bourbon. It’s fitting for his latest endeavor: A campaign with Jefferson’s Bourbon, a brand Kitsch likes because they share his sense of humor.
“My lifestyle is quite outdoorsy and quite out of the box,” he tells Observer. “I’m pretty self-deprecating. But at the end of the day, it is about quality. So all those [qualities] are aligned with me. The ad is about breaking the tradition. And that’s like the way I go about life, to be honest. Adventuring, thinking out of the box.”
The actor, who most recently starred in Amazon Prime Video’s The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, a prequel to 2022’s The Terminal List, spends his off-time in Bozeman, Montana. He moved there in 2021 from Texas, where he spent over 15 years, and has embraced the outdoor spirit of the town. At the moment, he’s back in Texas preparing to shoot Peter Landesman’s upcoming film Eleven Days, a hostage thriller set in a penitentiary. As much as he enjoys his job, balancing work and pleasure is a “constant battle” for Kitsch.
“I love what I do so much,” he says. “It just becomes your life, and you obsess over it, and I love it as well. It’s a catch-22, because I also love being in the outdoors, and photography, and motorcycle riding all over the world. That stuff allows me to forget [my job], and I honestly do think it makes you a better actor [by] learning about different cultures and being uncomfortable. That’s what living is about to me. So I don’t know if there is a balance. I’m quite extreme.”
Kitsch tends to select roles that push him, just like he enjoys extreme travel to places like Patagonia, where he rides motorcycles and photographs wildlife. But that doesn’t necessarily mean something has to have a big action component.
“Eleven Days is more about the human condition, the study of one man against another,” he notes. “It’s a true story in 1974, so that’s what intrigued me, other than being uncomfortable. It’s very different from anything I’ve ever done. I think you’ve got to be uncomfortable, and you’ve got to try to put yourself in situations where you don’t have an easy answer. So I’m excited. And I’m scared. And that usually means I’m doing the right thing.”
Here, Kitsch reveals what he takes with him on the road, what he needs on set and what’s in his home bar besides Jefferson’s.
