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Having a 'Gut Feeling' while Reading The Witch Script Led Her to Reject a Role in a Disney TV Project.
In 2015, actress Anya Taylor-Joy left critics and cinema lovers in awe as she took on the lead role in the horror masterpiece The Witch directed by Robert Eggers. The Witch can be considered the cornerstone of Anya Taylor-Joy's career. However, this role also demanded her to exchange it for another incredibly enticing career opportunity.
Declining Disney Princess Role for a Horror Film
In a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar, Anya Taylor-Joy reminisced about her experience being cast as the lead in The Witch. This wasn't just Anya Taylor-Joy's debut film project, but also her first time portraying a lead role after 2014, when she was only offered bland supporting roles.
Coincidentally, on the very day Taylor-Joy received the offer for The Witch, she also received another acting offer from the Disney Channel. In both projects, the actress was eyed for the lead role. The only difference was that the Disney Channel project was a long-format TV series.
'I vividly remember that day when I was offered a role in a pilot episode of a series produced by Disney Channel. The joy came unexpectedly to the point where I ran around the house screaming. But I had a very good intuition about The Witch. That intuition prompted me to decline a major opportunity at Disney to pursue a project still blurry to me, something that felt sacred,' shared Anya Taylor-Joy.
The actress has no regrets about her decision. She mentioned that besides the undeniable artistic value and the fame the film brought, The Witch also broadened her understanding of filmmaking.
The actress continued: 'The film laid the foundation for my career, the way I work today. The important thing is it helped me realize there's no hierarchy on the set: You work hard, you're the center of scenes, and don't assume someone else will do the work for you. Your position on the set is not just an actor, you're also a creator. That's how you should think about your profession.'
Hollywood's Beloved Leading Lady
Anya Taylor-Joy is one of Hollywood's young talents who has excellently earned recognition from critics and captured the hearts of audiences through each role. After The Witch, she continued to gain the trust of producers in various high-profile projects such as Glass (2019), Peaky Blinders, Queen's Gambit (2020), Last Night in Soho (2021)...
Among them, the series Queen's Gambit turned her into a global superstar. According to Netflix user data, as of November 2022, Queen's Gambit has become the streaming platform's most-watched limited series with 62 million subscribers choosing to watch it within 4 weeks.
5 years after The Witch, Anya Taylor-Joy continues to appear in Robert Eggers' project The Northman. After two years of production, the film about a Viking prince seeking revenge for his father was released in April of this year.
Speaking about reuniting with Eggers, Taylor-Joy once shared with Collider: 'Robert and I were friends before we became colleagues. Having the opportunity to make art together again is truly wonderful. Over time, each of us has had certain growth before developing together once again.'
On November 18th, the horror-comedy-thriller The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy alongside Nicholas Hoult, will officially release. The next two years continue to be busy for her as the actress is listed in at least four projects.
She voices Princess Peach in the adaptation of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The project is completed and awaiting release in 2023.
Furiosa, the prequel to the Mad Max franchise, is also in post-production with an expected release date in 2024. In the film, Taylor-Joy will portray a younger version of the warlord Furiosa - a character previously played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Two other projects in pre-production for Anya Taylor-Joy are the action film The Gorge, co-starring Miles Teller, and the adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's work Laughter in the Dark, titled Laughter in the Dark.
Image Source: IMDb
