The actor Edgar Wright compared to Cary Grant: “A lot of that old-school star wattage”
Since her breakout role in The Witch, Anya Taylor-Joy has proven herself as a force to be reckoned with through daring roles that refuse to play it safe, working within the mysterious world of Robert Eggers, Edgar Wright, Denis Villeneuve and M Night Shyamalan. With a captivating and slightly ethereal screen presence, she elevates any project through her magnetic prowess and unique star quality, something that has been praised by one her collaborators who likened her to a modern-day Greta Garbo or Cary Grant.
Taylor-Joy worked with Edgar Wright in 2021 on Last Night in Soho, a mind-bending story about doppelgängers in 1960’s London. Starring alongside Thomasin McKenzie, the pair become involved in a strange and disorienting game of cat and mouse as Eloise becomes fixated on Sandie. It was a daring project for Wright, who is more well-known for his comedies and genre films, with fast-paced editing that creates a snappy and stylistic universe.
After working with Taylor-Joy, Wright was quick to praise the actor, saying, “I’ve always had this theory that there’s a difference between an actor and a movie star. An actor can disappear completely, but a movie star can do that and also have awareness of the camera in the same way that Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo or Cary Grant would. Anya has a lot of that old-school Hollywood star wattage about her.”
It’s an interesting observation that highlights the challenges of being on screen. There are many actors who speak about ‘dancing’ with the camera and becoming friends with its presence – it isn’t something to be feared, it is something to work with and be acknowledged. Perhaps there are many actors who melt into the scene and don’t think about the presence of the crew or cameras, focusing solely on the inner world of the character. But Wright seems to be pointing towards the fact that this is perhaps an oversight; that to be truly great you have to incorporate the presence of the camera into your performance.
After working with Taylor-Joy, it was actually Wright who suggested her to George Miller for the role of Furiosa in the Mad Max saga. The actor has since spoken about how challenging the role was, saying, ““I wanted to be put in a situation in extremis where I would have no choice but to grow. And I got it… I’ve never been more alone than making that movie. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.”
While the production of the earlier Mad Max films are infamous for the clashes between Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy that created an incredibly strained atmosphere on set, Taylor-Joy has refused to speak about what made this particular instalment so challenging, saying, “Ask me again in 20 years”. In the previous films, it was said that the characters began to blur into the real lives of the actors, making it hard to separate between fiction and reality.
However, if anyone can bring the power needed to take on such a demanding role, it is Anya Taylor-Joy, and Wright’s description of her star quality is undoubtedly one of the things that makes her so resilient to the challenges of the creative process.
