49 Fun Facts About Anya Taylor-Joy

In which US city was Anya Taylor-Joy born, by what she calls a 'fluke', in 1996?

Miami was only a holiday stop: her parents were on vacation there when she arrived 'on a fluke'. The accident made her a US citizen.

In which city did Taylor-Joy spend her early childhood before moving to London?

Buenos Aires was home until the family left for London, a move she says 'broke all of our hearts'. Only at 14 did she come round and apologise to her parents, once she saw the freedom the city gave her.

Taylor-Joy's father, a former banker, won two world championships in which sport?

Offshore powerboat racing: Dennis Taylor gave up a career in international banking to race catamarans across open water, and took both of his world titles in the 1980s.

In a 2019 biopic, Taylor-Joy played Irène, the daughter of which Nobel Prize-winning scientist?

Marie Curie, played by Rosamund Pike in Radioactive. The real Irène served as a nurse radiographer in the First World War, X-raying the wounded, and went on to win a Nobel Prize of her own in 1935.

Taylor-Joy's first audition was for which Angelina Jolie character's younger self?

Maleficent: she wanted the Disney part badly and 'bawled my eyes out' when it went elsewhere, though she admits she looks nothing like Jolie. Not long afterwards she was asked to tape an audition for The Witch.

What did the young Taylor-Joy initially refuse to do after arriving in London?

Learn English: she held out until she was eight, two years after arriving, simply too upset at having left home. School stayed hard even once she spoke the language, and she recalls being locked in lockers.

Taylor-Joy trained seriously until age 15 in which discipline?

Ballet: she took lessons 'pretty seriously' until 15 and jokes that she has done no exercise since. The body remembers, she says, which helped when Last Night in Soho needed her to dance.

Taylor-Joy was scouted as a model while walking her dog outside which London department store?

Harrods: a black car trailed her until she scooped up her dog and ran, sure it was a stalker. Inside was Storm's Sarah Doukas, who had spotted Kate Moss, and who told her never to stop for a car again.

An actor from which TV drama heard Taylor-Joy reciting Seamus Heaney and introduced her to his agent?

Downton Abbey's Allen Leech found her revising Heaney's 'Digging' for her GCSEs at a cast photo shoot she had tried to skip. As she tells it, he asked her to recite it, then what she wanted to be, and put her in touch with his agent.

Taylor-Joy's first acting job, as a 'Feeder Girl', was cut from which 2014 film?

Vampire Academy cut her part before release, so her film debut slipped a year, to The Witch.

Taylor-Joy's television debut came in a 2014 episode of which Oxford-set detective drama?

Endeavour, the 1960s-set Inspector Morse prequel, gave her one episode as Philippa Collins-Davidson. It was the first audiences saw of her only because the film scene she had shot earlier was cut.

Who wrote and directed The Witch (2015), Taylor-Joy's breakthrough film?

Robert Eggers made it as his first feature, drawn to the subject by a childhood fascination with witches and decaying colonial farms. He and Taylor-Joy worked together again on The Northman.

The Witch premiered in January 2015 at which film festival?

Sundance was a shock for its star: seeing herself on screen for the first time, Taylor-Joy was devastated and sure she would never work again. The film made her name instead.

What is the name of the Puritan daughter Taylor-Joy plays in The Witch?

Thomasin is minding her baby brother when he vanishes, so her banished family comes to blame her as a witch. By the end the accusation comes true, and she walks into the woods to join the coven.

What is the name of the family's billy goat in The Witch?

Black Phillip really does talk, as the twins insist. Near the end the goat answers their sister in a human voice, offering her the taste of butter and the chance to 'live deliciously'.

Morgan (2016), starring Taylor-Joy, was directed by Luke, the son of which filmmaker?

Ridley Scott produced it as his son Luke's first feature. Morgan is a bioengineered child who attacks one of her handlers, so a corporate troubleshooter arrives to decide whether she is kept alive.

The 2016 drama Barry, in which Taylor-Joy appeared, is about the student years of which future president?

Barack Obama, seen in 1981 during his first year at Columbia. Taylor-Joy's Charlotte never existed: the character is a composite of the girlfriends the real Obama had as a student.

What is the name of the abducted teenager Taylor-Joy plays opposite James McAvoy in Split?

Casey Cooke is the only one of the three girls the Beast lets live. He stops when he sees her scars and declares that, because she has suffered, she is 'pure'.

Thoroughbreds (2017) finished filming two weeks before the death of which co-star, to whom it is dedicated?

Anton Yelchin plays the small-time dealer the two girls try to hire as a killer. Taylor-Joy later appeared in Love, Antosha, the documentary about his life.

In 2017 Taylor-Joy received the Trophée Chopard at which film festival?

Cannes: Chopard, the jeweller that crafts the festival's Palme d'Or, created the trophy to reward one promising young actress and one young actor there each year.

Taylor-Joy played a young bride in 17th-century Amsterdam in which BBC adaptation?

The Miniaturist: Jessie Burton named her heroine after the real Petronella Oortman, whose lavish doll's house is in the Rijksmuseum. In the story, tiny figures sent for the house seem to foretell the family's secrets.

Glass (2019), in which Taylor-Joy reprised her Split role, concluded which film trilogy?

Unbreakable came out in 2000, and Split gave no hint of a link until Bruce Willis's David Dunn appeared in its final scene. M. Night Shyamalan even cut that scene from test screenings to keep the secret.

In The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Taylor-Joy voiced Princess Brea, a member of which race?

Gelfling: Brea is one of three who discover that the Skeksis, the rulers their people worship, are draining living creatures of their essence, and who rouse the clans to rebel.

What is the name of Taylor-Joy's character in Peaky Blinders?

Gina Gray is Michael's American wife, who arrives after the Wall Street Crash and pushes him to try to take the Shelby company from Tommy. The failed bid gets the pair cast out of the family.

Who made her directorial debut with Emma (2020), starring Taylor-Joy as Emma Woodhouse?

Autumn de Wilde, a photographer by trade, put a full stop in the film's title, Emma., and explained that 'there's a period at the end of Emma because it's a period film'.

Which Russian mutant did Taylor-Joy play in The New Mutants?

Magik, real name Illyana Rasputin, fights with a glowing sword and a purple dragon called Lockheed. Shot in 2017, the film was pushed back again and again and reached cinemas only in August 2020.

The Queen's Gambit is based on a 1983 novel by which author?

Walter Tevis wrote from experience: a modest tournament chess player, he claimed to be better at pool, the game of his first novel, The Hustler. He died a year after the chess novel came out.

What is the name of the orphaned chess prodigy Taylor-Joy plays in The Queen's Gambit?

Beth Harmon learns chess at nine from Mr Shaibel, the orphanage custodian, in the basement. The same home hands its girls daily tranquillisers, and the habit shadows her whole rise.

The Queen's Gambit, set largely in Kentucky, was mostly filmed in which European city?

Berlin stood in for Kentucky, Cincinnati, Las Vegas and Mexico City alike. The heroine's orphanage is really a castle just outside the German capital, and her Las Vegas hotel was found in the city too.

Who wrote and directed The Queen's Gambit?

Scott Frank, by her account, had only the novel to show her: she read it at once, ran to their meeting and told him before hello that it wasn't about chess and the heroine had to have red hair; he agreed and told her to sit down.

Which actor died while preparing to direct a film of The Queen's Gambit, years before Taylor-Joy's series?

Heath Ledger, a strong chess player himself, was still developing the film when he died in January 2008. The producer, who had held the rights since 1992, finally saw it made as a series in 2020.

Which actress beat Taylor-Joy to the 2021 limited-series Emmy?

Kate Winslet won for playing a small-town detective in Mare of Easttown. Taylor-Joy had already taken the Golden Globe and the SAG Award for The Queen's Gambit, and her director won his Emmy the same night.

Which chess coach consulted on The Queen's Gambit?

Bruce Pandolfini had advised on the original novel back in 1983, and returned nearly four decades later to devise the series' chess positions. Ben Kingsley played him in the film Searching for Bobby Fischer.

Who directed Last Night in Soho (2021)?

Edgar Wright, best known for Shaun of the Dead, met Taylor-Joy in 2015 as a juror at the festival that launched The Witch. She stayed attached to his script for the six years it took to reach cinemas.

Which Petula Clark song does Taylor-Joy perform in Last Night in Soho?

Downtown, Petula Clark's 1964 hit, turns haunting in her version. Taylor-Joy says she is 'not great at preparing', so she simply showed up to record it, hoping 'they won't hate it'.

What is the name of the 1960s would-be singer Taylor-Joy plays in Last Night in Soho?

Sandie is the confident would-be singer a present-day fashion student starts to see, and to copy, in her dreams of Sixties Soho. The glamour sours as her manager boyfriend hands her on to other men.

The Northman, which reunited Taylor-Joy with her Witch director, is based on the legend of whom?

Amleth is the Viking prince whose revenge for his murdered father, set down by Saxo Grammaticus, gave Shakespeare a plot. Move the final h to the front and the name becomes Hamlet.

Who plays the celebrity chef who serves Taylor-Joy's character a deadly tasting menu in The Menu (2022)?

Ralph Fiennes plays Chef Slowik, who tells his hand-picked diners that all of them will be dead by the end of the night. Taylor-Joy's Margot is the one guest he never planned for.

Which character does Taylor-Joy voice in the 2023 animated Super Mario Bros. film?

Princess Peach rules the Mushroom Kingdom and needs no rescuing here: she trains Mario herself and sets out to win the Kongs as allies against Bowser. Taylor-Joy voiced her again in the 2026 sequel.

Taylor-Joy's secret cameo in Dune: Part Two was as which character?

Alia Atreides is the hero's sister, still unborn in the film, so Taylor-Joy appears only in his vision of the future. Denis Villeneuve said everybody 'signed with their blood' to keep her casting secret.

Who directed Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?

George Miller wanted her Furiosa near-silent: Taylor-Joy says she went months on set without speaking a line, fought him for three months to be allowed a single scream, and has 'never been more alone' than while making it.

Who plays Dementus, the warlord who kidnaps the young Furiosa?

Chris Hemsworth, an Australian who grew up on the Mad Max films, swaps Thor's heroics for a talkative psychopath at the head of a biker horde, one who sees himself as a father to the girl he steals.

Before Taylor-Joy took over the role in a 2024 prequel, who played Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road?

Charlize Theron was nearly kept on: the director first planned to de-age her by computer for the prequel, and cast younger only after deciding the technology still left 'an uncanny valley'.

Who stars opposite Taylor-Joy as the other sniper in The Gorge (2025)?

Miles Teller plays Levi, posted to the tower facing hers with orders never to make contact. She breaks the rule on her birthday, and the two court across the chasm with written signs and a shooting contest.

After a secret wedding in 2022, Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae held a second ceremony at a palazzo in which city?

Venice: they celebrated with 150 guests at the 15th-century Palazzo Pisani Moretta in 2023. The legal wedding had come on April Fools' Day 2022 in New Orleans, and she kept it secret for two years.

In 2025, Taylor-Joy was reported to be playing the young Joni Mitchell in which director's biopic?

Cameron Crowe profiled Mitchell for Rolling Stone in 1979 and worked with her in secret on the film of her life. Reports named Taylor-Joy as the singer in her 1960s and 70s prime, with Meryl Streep as her older self.

In Sacrifice (2025), Taylor-Joy's doomsday zealot kidnaps a movie star played by which actor?

Chris Evans plays Mike Tyler, a film star seized at a charity gala along with a billionaire and a performer. Taylor-Joy's Joan and her siblings believe that sacrificing the three will cleanse the Earth.

Who directed Amsterdam (2022), the period comedy in which Taylor-Joy appeared?

David O. Russell built the comedy on the Business Plot, a real 1933 conspiracy to unseat President Roosevelt. Even with Christian Bale and Margot Robbie leading the cast, it was a box-office bomb.

Which former world chess champion wrote Taylor-Joy's tribute for Time's 100 Next list in 2021?

Garry Kasparov says he was first asked to act in The Queen's Gambit as its Soviet champion; he declined and advised on the chess instead. In Time he wrote that her performance might do more for the game than all the real champions.