24.03.2020
by Vanessa Scott

Translation by Adoring Anya.
Do not reproduce without permission.

Anya Taylor-Joy: “I dream of working with Wes Anderson”
With a singular face, unquestionable talent and extraordinary self-confidence, the actress, the face of Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb, will be a flagship personality of 2020 thanks to the remake of Emma, the spin-off X Men, New Mutants and the film Radioactive.

After this shooting with Anya Taylor-Joy, ambassador of Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb perfume, the actress presents herself in a dancer’s outfit with an oversized sweater and striped wool stockings worn on a fishnet tights. Let’s start with the new version of Emma, Wilde’s Autumn movie from Jane Austen’s book that comes out in June, in which Anya has the title role. “In November 2018, I received an email asking me not to confirm new projects, followed immediately by another email warning me that I was wanted for Emma and that the next day the director would fly to see me. When we met with Autumn de Wilde, we just got along and what was supposed to be a lunch was followed by a long afternoon of walking, going to the antique shops, in a relationship of immediate complicity almost a mother-daughter relationship.“

Anya, who had read the novel at the age of 11, explains the popularity and contemporary relevance of a book written in 1815, “because it is witty! I think that with this production, we have managed to bring out the extraordinary sense of humour of Jane Austen. During the filming, I was perfectly aware of the expectations and the pressure I would be subjected to by playing such an appreciated role. I thought it would be a very serious experience, but actually, on set, we had a lot of fun. I think I’m going to put in my next contracts that I no longer want to work with Josh O’Connor (Mr. Elton in Emma), because it’s impossible for me to keep my seriousness when he’s around! Jane Austen wrote in the preface of her book: ‘I am staging a heroine who, apart from me, will not please many’. I think it’s fantastic, because the idea of always having to please everyone makes me angry. What I wanted to convey from my character is that Emma is beautiful, intelligent and rich, she has a benevolent heart but she is also totally snobbish and can be absolutely cruel. A cruelty that comes from her insecurity and her feeling of loneliness: she is extremely protective towards her friends because she is afraid to stay alone. From the beginning of the shooting, Autumn made the actors understand the social rules of the Regency period. As a good Latin American, I used to kiss everyone, but Autumn wouldn’t let me on set. And the others weren’t allowed to touch me. Emma lives so under a glass bell that every time the characters touch their hands, it triggers upsetting reactions. This explains in part why the scene where we see Emma and Mr. Knightley dancing (played by Johnny Flynn) is also electric on the screen.”

For Autumn by Wilde, who was first a fashion photographer, Emma is her first film. “My job as an actress is to get into the director’s brain to the point of knowing what they want and like before they even tell me explicitly. The Emma we’re presenting is really the creature that Autumn and I designed together. The alchemy that was created between us allowed us to give life to more complex and interesting characters,” continues Anya.

Born in Miami, the last of a family of six children, Anya entered the cinema on a stroke of luck: “I was walking my dog when a guy started following me by car. He was in charge of a modeling agency and asked me if I was interested in posing. I told him that I could only do it if he considered me an actress. That’s how I ended up on a set of pictures with the actors at Downtown Abbey. Adam Leech (Tom Branson) asked me to recite the poem that I was reading. Then he put me in touch with his agent. That’s why I keep telling him he’s my fairy godmother.”

Without any training, Anya found herself on the set of Robert Eggers’ horror film The Witch, which won the Sundance 2015 Best Director Award, and launched her as an actress. Since then, she has worked tirelessly, won the Gotham Breakthrough Actor Award in 2016, was nominated the following year for BAFTA in the Rising Star category and won the Chopard Trophy at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Anya gets ready to meet Robert Eggers on the set of The Northman, a revenge story that takes place among the Vikings in the 10th century. After The Witch, Anya appeared in 2017 in Mr. Night Shyamalan’s Split, alongside James Mcavoy, playing again two years later in Glass. “I started acting when I was 18, and I feel like I’m gradually discovering who I am through all the roles I get rid of. It was great working with Mr. Night again, the people I feel good with always have a bit of crazy, I’m ready to follow them to the end of the world and they follow me. When I don’t play in a scene, Mr. Night always wants me by his side and asks me for my opinion on many things. In general, my character becomes a kind of twin sister with whom I live all the time. I live my roles with such passion that playing characters so different from each other is absolutely electrifying.”

In London, Anya does not yet have a permanent home. Her perception of the city changed a lot: “When I arrived, everything seemed grey and discouraging. I had grown up under the sun and felt completely lost. But today, I love my independence, I know London like my pocket and when I go along and wide with my combat boots, I feel totally safe. There is an atmosphere of rebellion in this city alongside a cordiality very “tea room”: I find this coexistence exhilarating.” Aside from combat boots, fashion fascinates her little: “By the end of this year, I will have shot 22 films in five years, I have practically always lived in stage attire. I am only now beginning to discover my sense of style, which I would call irreverent. I like eccentric things. Besides, my last obsession borders on bad taste: giant earrings, which I made myself by hanging Christmas decorations on a ring.” Last year’s muse of Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb Midnight, Anya, this year, becomes ambassador of the Flowerbomb Eau de Parfum and Flowerbomb Dew versions. And what actress could better interpret this dichotomy, with her side The Witch, perfect for Midnight and her pink English side in full harmony with Dew!

“Viktor & Rolf make clothes that are real works of art, almost architectural constructions. Flowerbomb Midnight is mysterious, sexy, Flowerbomb Dew also is, but in a different way, more in tune with my conception of sensuality: stay in bed all morning on Sunday, in silk sheets, stretching like a cat. The sensuality of the next morning rather than the evening of the meeting.” Anya’s self-confidence is impressive. “This comes from my family, even if we are all scattered all over the world like gypsies. I am the youngest. It is wonderful to have such a large family, and at the same time to have been raised with all the attention of my parents, almost as if I were an only daughter. My father is half Scottish and half Argentinean, he is a sportsman with a competitive mentality. My mother, of African, English and Spanish descent, is always ready to laugh and dance. She was a photographer, jewellery designer and interior decorator. At the age I am now, 23, she adopted three children, and then she adopted three more. She gave us all her love and devoted all her time to us. A real Wonder Woman.”

In addition to the spin-off of X Men, New Mutants, released in April, of Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi with Rosamund Pike who will be on our screens in June, Anya is currently shooting for Netflix The Queen’s Gambit, the story of chess champion Bess Harmon. Does she never get tired? “There are so many things I would like to do creatively. At the moment, I would like to work in a musical, or in a martial arts film, which requires a strong physical involvement. I also dream of working with director Wes Anderson: his taste for eccentric things is very similar to mine!”