Taylor Kitsch On Life As An Actor: “There’s Never Going To Be A Balance”
Taylor Kitsch is setting his sights on something new for 2025: finding balance. The 43-year-old actor, best known for his breakout role as Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, admits that the grind of his career has often overshadowed his personal life.
“There’s never going to be a perfect balance,” Taylor says, adding, “But I’m more conscious of the lack of balance now in my 40s than I was in my 20s and 30s.”
Taylor’s career has taken him around the globe, with projects like the Netflix Western American Primeval in New Mexico and The Terminal List in Hungary keeping him constantly on the move. While these intense roles bring fulfillment, they also leave little room for personal connections. For the actor now, relationships often fall “to the wayside.”
Reflecting on his lifestyle, Taylor recalls a conversation with a fellow actor. “Man, I can’t even get a dog,” he told the co-actor.
As he recalled: “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.’”
Despite the sacrifices, Taylor is still passionate about his work, often choosing roles that push him out of his comfort zone. “The catch-22 is I keep getting these great, fulfilling jobs. 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.”
Beyond acting, Taylor has been working on a deeply personal project: building a nature retreat on 22 acres in Bozeman, Montana. The retreat, inspired by his sister Shelby Kitsch-Best’s journey to sobriety, will serve kids, veterans, and the sober living community. “I didn’t even know sober escapes existed until I had a crash course with my sister. “I was like, ‘Man, it sounds incredible to offer people a chance to reconnect in nature and slow things down.,” Taylor explains.
When he’s not acting or building his retreat, Taylor finds peace in nature. Whether it’s fly-fishing or photographing wildlife, he uses these moments to recharge after intense projects. “After you do jobs that are intense like Primeval, you need a breath. There’s no better place for that,” he states.
Next month, Taylor is taking a significant step toward his 2025 goal with an epic adventure. “I’m going to Patagonia with two of my best friends for a two-week motorcycle ride to photograph the pumas. It’s those things I want to start doing a lot more of,” he shares.
