Anya Taylor-Joy is the Beauty Amongst the Beasts in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

From Warner Bros

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY (Furiosa) burst onto the scene with her performance in A24’s “The VVitch,” which won her rave reviews when it premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In his debut feature, writer/director Robert Eggers tells the story of a pilgrim family that is besieged by a supernatural force. She went on to win the Breakthrough Actor Award at The Gotham Awards and Best Female Newcomer Award at The Empires for her performance. 

Taylor-Joy captivated audiences globally in Netflix’s Emmy award-winning series, “The Queen’s Gambit.” Based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel of the same name, the show is Netflix’s biggest limited scripted series to date and was streamed by a record-setting 62 million households in its first 28 days. For her portrayal of Beth Harmon, she won the Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards and was nominated for an Emmy award. 

Taylor-Joy most recently voiced Princess Peach in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed $1.36 billion worldwide and broke multiple box office records, including the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and the highest-grossing film based on a video game. Her performance in Searchlight Picture’s “The Menu” earned her a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. She can next be seen in “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” the much-anticipated return to the iconic dystopian world George Miller created and the origin story of the powerhouse character from Miller’s multi-Oscar winning blockbuster “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which is set to premiere in May 2024. She will also be starring in Apple’s upcoming film “The Gorge,” alongside Miles Teller.

Her extensive filmography includes Autumn de Wilde’s “Emma,” for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe; BAFTA-nominated “Last Night in Soho”; David O’Russell’s “Amsterdam”; “Split” and “Glass,” the second and final installments in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” trilogy; Focus Features’ critically acclaimed “Thoroughbreds”; the animated musical adventure comedy film, “Playmobil: The Movie,” for StudioCanal; Universal’s “Marrowbone”; FOX’s “Morgan”; Marvel’s “The New Mutants”; and Amazon’s “Radioactive.” She’s most recently known for her chilling performance in Robert Eggers’ “The Northman.”

On television, Taylor-Joy starred in the BBC/PBS Masterpiece miniseries “The Miniaturist,” voiced the character of Brea in Netflix’s critically acclaimed fantasy series, “The Dark Crystal,” and starred in the fifth season of the gangster period epic, “Peaky Blinders.”

DIRECTOR GEORGE MILLER:  I’d seen Anya in “The VVitch,” way back in the time “Fury Road” came out—she was very young then—and then I saw her in an early cut that Edgar Wright showed me of “Last Night in Soho.” When I saw her on the screen, I thought, “There’s something very compelling about her.” Very, very present, fierce and resolute, even in the character, singing and dancing. She had those skills already, which I think is a really good marker of a skilled actor. They have a lot of precision, physically, and therefore I think ultimately emotionally. When the film finished, I talked to Edgar about it. “Anya, I think she would be really good for—” And I think I got that far in the sentence and he said, “Do it, do it! She’s got everything you need. She’s there.” And I couldn’t believe I didn’t even mention Furiosa. Edgar is someone for whom I’ve got tremendous respect—his instincts, his process and so on. It wasn’t just, “Oh, she’s great…” It was, “Do it, do it!” So, with that confirmation… and he turned out to be absolutely right. Then, I got to talk to Anya, show her the screenplay, talk about what we were doing, and then learned all those 5 things about her. Like Charlize, she trained in ballet. She was riding motorbikes young, as well as doing ballet and so on. And she ventured out into the world with a very supportive family. But ventured out very young. So, there was definitely an overlap with the character. With both Anya and Alyla Browne and the characters, the Venn diagrams overlapped quite a bit for me.

Anya was a wonderful collaborator whose contributions added to the depth of the character, making it her own. There's no question that she brought something that’s ferocious to the movie—whether it’s in her or not, she found that in herself. And it’s something that I sensed in her work previous to working with her. And it’s something I really got to know in working with her on this movie. There’s something resolute, highly determined, and ultimately ferocious that’s in her. And that’s seen on the screen. She’s not physically afraid—as I say, I think it’s in her genetics. I think it’s in her upbringing. And certainly I think it’s in the way that she took on this work.

PRODUCER DOUG MITCHELL: Anya jumped in with both feet way before pre-production. She was very enthusiastic and incredibly professional. She worked with a team of multiple trainers. She definitely had to go through very strict and heavy training, in the sense both physically, but also in terms of the vehicles and the motorbikes. We had her working with these different professionals— personal trainer, action trainer, fighting trainer, driving trainer—and she really enjoyed it. She took on a huge commitment and worked on all of these skills to have the abilities to give a really tremendous performance in the role.

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY: I remember it was mid-lockdown and I got a text from a filmmaker who I’ve worked with—Edgar Wright—who said, “George Miller wants to talk to you,” and immediately, my whole body kind of electrified. And we started with a Facetime, first and foremost, where we just got to know each other. He was asking all of these slightly cryptic questions: How good I was on a motorcycle, was I willing to do my own stunts? And he said, “Listen, we’re doing the prequel to ‘Fury Road,’ we’re telling the story of Furiosa, and would you mind auditioning for it? I want you to do a speech from the movie ‘Network.’” I was thrilled because, first and foremost, I am a huge fan of this franchise and so just the idea of being able to jump in and be a part of this world was massive for me. And then when I read the “Network” script, it made a lot of sense. The scene is essentially a news broadcaster demanding of people to stand up and fight for what’s right, because the world that they live in is diabolical. I think I sent maybe two or three takes in, and then George would call me with these minute little notes. And I’d go okay, and go back and do it again—we were doing it in real time. And just getting the job, I’ll never forget—it didn’t feel real when I knew that I had it. I remember the day that it came out online. I was in my apartment by myself in Belfast, shooting “The Northman,” and I just ran around the whole apartment, screaming. I was so, so, so excited to tell the story.

 I think you have to make it your own, we’re all so individual. I think you can stay true to the core principles of a character, but I felt really lucky that from the moment I 13 read the script… I’ve only felt this way about three characters before. The first was my first ever film, “The Witch,” which I didn’t realize until the movie ended that the characters were real for me, so I didn’t know I was on that journey with Thomasin. For Beth in “The Queen’s Gambit,” I very much knew that that was a story I could tell, because I felt like I was slightly ahead of it, and I could tell it with hindsight. Furiosa, the second I read it, I was like, “Okay, this is going to be one of those ones where it’s very difficult to separate yourself, you’re going to feel like you are in these scenes and it’s going to feel real.” So, I don’t really think I had much of a choice in terms of my artistry in making it my own. It was just very real for me.

I remember at the very beginning, George and I would have these really long conversations that would go on for four or five hours, and one day he asked me to justify making the film to him. “You have to pitch me why we are even making this film.” And to me, I see it as a cautionary tale. I see it as presenting a world that is wildly entertaining and supremely beautiful in terms of the artistry that everyone else brings to it. But the reality of that universe is not terribly far off, and that was something that I was very attracted to in terms of telling this story and Furiosa’s rightful obsession with getting back to the Green Place. I think that’s something that if people haven’t already caught on to that they are going to start catching on to that relatively soon—to protect our planet. In terms of the performance aspect of it, I have so much love and admiration for Furiosa and she’s so close to my heart that I just wanted to get it right. I was very much in Furiosa’s head and so it was hard to let go of her. I hope that meant that something worked, because all that I cared about was telling this person’s story correctly.

So, as of yet, I do not have a driver’s license—so I can pull a juicy lift 180, but I cannot parallel park or go on the highway. My introduction to driving has been very different to most people. I was really excited by the physical nature of this job. I wanted to do as much as I was allowed to do and George was really supportive of that, so I started training a year before we started filming the movie, alongside my incredible stunt double, Hayley Wright. We went through the exact same training. I have never been very good on a bicycle, so to suddenly get on a motorcycle was a bit of a jump. I just feel so lucky that I got to learn with the best of the best, and I have this incredible community now in stunts because all of these people were so kind and 14 so generous with their time. It was learning how to ride a motorcycle, going up from a 150 to a 450, and then getting really comfortable in the car, because a lot of it is also hitting your marks. And then, I got really fit. What’s crazy about it is I definitely did more training in the year prior to the movie than I was able to fit in while making the film. And yet, I was stronger than I’ve ever been, because throwing yourself around a War Rig requires every muscle in your body. My workout became coming to work and doing the scenes, and I felt quite proud of my strength during that time.

 As an actor, as an artist, I am always trying to put myself in positions where I am forced to grow—a unique situation in which I have to grow in order to be able to perform, to deliver. I never minded Furiosa not talking very much, because that seemed part of the character to me. It seemed very understandable that she’s not terribly verbal. What all this meant for me was that I essentially had body language, my eyes, and potentially breathing, in order to be able to convey something. And that opened up a whole other universe of acting for me, because I had perimeters and I couldn’t really move on either side of those. I had to be inventive about how to tell this story. I think it also made the big moments so liberating, and that really fit in with the character as well. If you think about it, she has very little agency for most of the movie. She’s being patient and taking every little change in her circumstances for a really long time. When she does get agency, I felt that liberation, too. The first takes I just got to explode, and it was awesome.