Taylor John Smith

Taylor John Smith fell into acting on a lark. After his mom scraped together $70 so that his little sister could take acting classes, she chickened out, and Smith decided to go instead. “I was the man of the house, and even though I was 17, I was like, ‘I got this.’ I was just trying to hide in the back and not be seen.” These days, it’s impossible not to see the 21-year-old up-and-comer, who starred in the coming-of-age hoops drama Wolves, and will appear alongside Amy Adams in Jean-Marc Vallée’s HBO limited series Sharp Objects.

THE ART OF WAR:

“For this one audition, I had to play war, and hide behind a couch and shoot at invisible things, and they’re like, ‘Make gun sounds!’ And I’m like, ‘Thank you, I’ve got to go. My mom’s calling, I need to put money in the meter.’ And I just didn’t come back.”

TRUST THE PROCESS: