After getting his big break starring as bad-boy football star Tim Riggs for five seasons on Friday Night Lights, Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch has since been taking his shot at big-screen stardom, recently in the Martian adventure, John Carter, and the unfortunate blockbuster flop, Battleship. Attempting to prove that he can handle some of Hollywood’s heaviest roles, Kitsch stars in this Friday’s Oliver Stone drug cartel crime film, Savages, opposite Blake Lively, Salma Hayek, John Travolta, and Benicio Del Toro. 2012 is Kitsch’s “go big, or go home year,” and we’re sure that the former John Riggs is about to go for the touchdown with his latest role. After all, Kitsch has worked illegally and slept on subways to get where he is today. Here are five things you didn’t know about Taylor Kitsch.
Taylor almost became a pro hockey player
Although he played high school football star Tim Riggs on Friday Night Lights, the Kelowna, BC native is actually quite the hockey player. The actor was set to join the Langley Hornets of the Canadian British Hockey League, but a knee injury put an end to his sports star dreams. “I was going to go pro …” he told the NY Daily News. “I mean, we had offers coming in, so it was quite devastating, but I think a lot of things happen for a reason. One door opened, and acting is a huge passion and always was, but I kind of put it to the wayside because, you know, since you’re 3 years old, it’s been hockey.”
Taylor was once homeless
When Taylor Kitsch originally left Canada to try his luck in the US, he moved to New York to study acting and worked on the side as a male model. When he couldn’t find a couch to crash on, Taylor often resorted to sleeping on the subway. “I’d try to stay as low to the ground as possible so [the security guards] didn’t see me,” he has said. “I’d get on the subway late at night and sleep for five or six hours.”
He is a ceritfied nutrionist
“I got certified as a nutritionist and a personal trainer while I was studying acting,” Kitsch has said. “I was homeless in New York and LA; I couldn’t work much because I was Canadian and didn’t have a visa. I wasn’t supposed to work in gyms but I did it anyway… I love helping out other people with advice. If acting didn’t work I would’ve become a dietician for kids. We’re in the worst state we’ve ever been in, in terms of obesity in kids, adult early onset diabetes, and so on. Especially in the States. It’s a f**king joke.”
He refuses to live in LA
Although Taylor filmed in Austin for five seasons while he starred on Saturday Night Lights, he didn’t move back to LA when filming finally wrapped on the series in 2011. Instead, he decided to build his dream home in Austin. “I could give you a million reasons why not L.A.” Taylor told GQ magazine earlier this year. “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 f**king 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—three 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 f**king 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.”
His personal motto is “Without regret”
“It’s quite simple, but it takes a lot to live up to that, by the way, if you think about it,” the actor told Scolastic.com. “I work in Africa quite a bit so I have Swahili word tattooed on my ribs that means ‘Without regret.’ I work with a charity, the African Children’s Choir. And this charity takes kids from war-torn areas, villages, and slums, and schools them, houses them, feeds them, and creates a choir with this group that travels the world, and raises money for their own cause.”
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Photo Courtesy of: Universal
Tags: 5 Things You Didn't Know, battleship, blake lively, friday night lights, hockey player, john carter, Oliver Stone, Salma Hayek, Savages, tattoo, taylor kitsch, Tim Riggs