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Anya Taylor-Joy attends the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer
show as part of Paris Fashion Week 2024 in Paris, France.
©Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images

As is often the case, at the origin of it all is A24, the that Anya Taylor-Joy naturally exudes, and cast her in the
coolest American production and distribution company of role of the not-so-victim in his film Split, where she put up a
recent years, named after an Italian motorway because that strong fight against the schizophrenic psychopath played
was where its two founders were driving when they decided by James McAvoy.
to embark on that professional adventure. The movie they Because this young actress is like that: her physicality
produced was called The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers: and her manner express a complex and very contemporary
a terrifying horror movie, one of the most celebrated of the coexistence of delicacy and strength, grace and
new millennium, in which a previously unknown girl starred. determination; her gaze is alien and fascinating, the intense
Good, very good, with two very big eyes. Big, intense, made brown of her eyes enhanced by the natural blonde of
even more intriguing by the fact that they were set further her hair.
apart than usual. Anya Taylor-Joy suffered a little from that All of Anya’s best performances are based on the
physical peculiarity years ago; now she knows that it is one electricity generated in her performance by these apparent
of her most important assets. contradictions, by the sense of unpredictability that the
She was born in Miami to an Anglo-Spanish mother actress hides behind every gesture and every line. Among
and an Anglo-Argentine father, and lived in Buenos Aires these, certainly, is the role of Beth Harmon in Netflix’s
and then in London. Anya had a background in modelling miniseries The Queen’s Gambit, based on the novel by the
and a couple of small roles in film and TV before becoming same name by Walter Tevis, which earned Taylor-Joy a
a star thanks to Eggers’ film, for which she won awards and Golden Globe: Beth is not only a phenomenal chess genius,
nominations for Best New Actress. a young woman trying to assert herself with determination
M. Night Shyamalan, one of the most acclaimed in a ruthlessly masculine world, but also a fragile person
contemporary filmmakers, immediately called her to work struggling with her addictions (to drugs, alcohol and love)
with him. He quickly grasped the strength of character and her insecurities.

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