In the past year many names were mentioned in the entertainment scene. One of those names however, came time and time again, so much so that it became one of the high points of the year.
That name was Anya Taylor-Joy, the British/Argentine,American born, 24 year old.
And it’s not really a surprise, she starred in one of 2020’s most acclaimed miniseries, The Queen’s Gambit.
Her performance as Beth Harmon made her one of the most recognizable TV characters to have come out in the past years. I found it rather amazing the contrast she managed to perform with her character. Going from quiet moments full of subtly when she’s playing chess to full blown drinking and dancing binges. Not to mention her more emotional moments when she knows she needs to remain strong and move forward.
She’s got a very high chance of winning an Emmy. Her performance was not only extremely well received by critics and audiences alike, but by the chess scene as well. Not only that but she now has become a household name in all across the world through the power of streaming and the internet.
One might think that was it for her in 2020, but she actually also stared in the newest adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, which was well received by both critics and audiences alike and she, like always, was praised by her work. In conjunction to Emma she appeared in The New Mutants, a film that was supposed to come out like three years ago haha. But even her career beforehand has been frankly kind of amazing.
Now if you were wondering about her origins and nationality, I was too surprised by it so let me explain; she was born in Miami, Florida, on a 16th of April, in 1996. The youngest of six children, her parents are from different origins, her mother being Spanish-English born in Zambia, her father on the other hand is Scottish and Argentinian. While an infant, the family moved to Buenos Aires, there she spent most of her childhood up until the age of 6.
That’s when her family moved to London, at first Anya refused to speak English for 2 years, thinking that she would eventually return to Argentina. She didn’t properly learn to speak English until she was 8 years old. Fast forward a few years and she moved to New York and was constantly traveling between the US and England. While being scouted as a model she was discovered by an acting agent.
Now for her first feature film, she had to make tough choice, to star in the debut film of an unknown director or take part in a Disney Channel Series. She choose to star in the debut of Roger Eggers, The Witch. In hindsight I think it’s safe to say she chose the right thing haha.
Her performance in The Witch was rather surprising, you wouldn’t believe that it was her first film acting credit. Her character journey is hard and painful and Anya sells that to us perfectly.
After The Witch back in 2015, she went on to appear on three films the following year, one of those films would see her reach unprecedented (for her standards haha) success. The other two films, Morgan and Barrry would see her do well even if she wasn’t the main lead (as it was the case with Barry) or if the script wasn’t enough (as it was the case with Morgan). But the third film she starred on 2016 would be something quite different.
As much as she was critically acclaimed for her performance in The Witch, she didn’t reach worldwide recognition until her role a film that made everyone realize that M. Night Shyamalan still had talent, Split.
She starred alongside renowned James McAvoy. In one of McAvoy best performances, Anya stood tall against him. Not many people can say that they have been on the good films from M. Night but she can. Her performance in Split saw her vastly out shadow the other girls that appeared on the film and by a very large margin.
Split was the first film I saw of her, a it was a really big box office success, earning $278 million dollars (on a $9 million budget) but most important of all, it sold us on the idea that M. Night Shyamalan still had it in him.
That was quite a year for Anya, but she was till heading upwards and upwards. After that she went to star in two films, Marrowbone and Thoroughbreds. I haven’t seen Marrowbone but I did see Thoroughbreds, which I believe may still be in Netflix. I think Thoroughbreds was a great film that finally saw her improve her acting skills by a large margin. A role quite different than before, she plays this rich teenager who is plotting to kill her step-dad. Her performance is rather interesting especially because of who she interacts with and its a mixture of serious and dark comedy. I sometimes couldn’t tell what her intentions were.
I think her performance in Thoroughbreds, Split and The Witch, where the main reasons for her winning the Trophée Chopard award a the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. An award that’s reserved for up and coming actors and actress who show great promise.
There wasn’t much from Anya in 2018, but 2019 on the other hand was once again a big year. For starters she reprised her role from Split in Glass in 2019, and although the film had a lot of problems, she wasn’t one of them. She then appeared in the Anton Yelchin documentary, Love, Antosha. Playmobil: The Movie, and Radioactive (film).
Most importantly though, she also got herself in the main cast of one of my favorite series, Peaky Blinders. Arriving late in the series, she still manage to generate a strong impression of her character.
As we already mentioned, 2020 was a great year for her and it could’ve been even greater, because she was also starring in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho but alas it got delayed until 2021.
And we are not even taking into account her future film releases, which include a starring role in The Northman, were she will reunite once again with the one that started it all and saved her from Disney, Robert Eggers.
If that wasn’t enough she’ll take the role of Furiosa for an upcoming Mad Max prequel called Furiosa. And if that wasn’t enough, she already announced to appear in three upcoming films, Laughter in the Dark (with director Scott Frank), Weetzie Bat, and The Sea Change.
And if that wasn’t enough, ok that’s it haha.
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