Fast Five with Anya Taylor-Joy
This young actress will send chills down your spine in the thriller Morgan
FACT FILE
Name: Anya Taylor-Joy
Born: April 16, 1996 in Miami, Florida, USA
Filmography: The Witch (2015), Morgan (2016)
Role: Model
This doe-eyed beauty spent her childhood in Argentina and London and was a successful model in the UK before switching to acting.
The 20-year-old was discovered by legendary model scout Sarah Doukas, who spotted supermodels Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne, when she was out walking her dog near her London home. She was 16 then.
Big-screen break
Taylor-Joy wowed moviegoers, critics and industry players with her performance as a teen accused of practising witchcraft in last year’s acclaimed indie horror The Witch.
She was soon cast as the titular lead in Morgan, a thriller about a genetically-engineered teen whose seemingly innocent persona belies mysterious and dangerous behaviour.
Opening here tomorrow, it also stars Kate Mara, Rose Leslie, Michelle Yeoh, Toby Jones and Paul Giamatti, and is the directorial debut of Luke Scott, the youngest son of veteran film-maker Ridley Scott.
Solitary confinement
While Taylor-Joy is proud of her work in Morgan, she admitted that the filming process was not what she expected as she was in a glass cage “99 per cent of the time”.
She said: “Watching everyone else do their thing, and have a good time and laugh, and I’d just be sitting there alone in a cage, it was quite unpleasant.
“It didn’t help that the glass is pretty soundproof too.”
Becoming Morgan
Her ballet background helped her ace Morgan’s action scenes.
She said: “Once I knew the moves and poses, I could switch from dance mode to become a fighter.
“My posture changed, and things like walking up the stairs, the way that she looks at things, and how she’s kind of coiled consistently and ready to strike... it was an unbelievable way to get into character.”
Girl on fire
Morgan is just a stepping stone to a burgeoning Hollywood career.
Taylor-Joy has finished working on Barry, a biopic that documents a young Barack Obama’s move to New York; the thriller Thoroughbred co-starring the late Anton Yelchin; and the highly-anticipated M. Night Shyamalan horror flick Split, where she will share screen time with James McAvoy.
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