Anya Taylor-Joy became a name six years ago with The Witch, but it was The Queen’s Gambit that took her into the stratosphere. Her upcoming slate is a corker: Young Furiosa in a Mad Max spin-off; a David O. Russell film with Margot Robbie and Christian Bale; another with her Witch director Robert Eggers. (And Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho has yet to hit theaters.) But mega-fame has its ups as well as its downs. And in the latter column is that she can no longer be blubbery mess on airplanes.
In a new interview with InStyle (in a bit caught by Vanity Fair), the actress talks about many things, including how becoming next-level famous has gotten in the way of her acting process, namely the part where she’s just finished up a role.
“I used to hysterically sob on planes as my form of therapy of leaving jobs behind,” she told the publication. “I would put on a dramatic movie and be like, ‘OK, tonight we cry!’ But I can’t sob on planes anymore without people being concerned for my well-being. Someone will be like, ‘Are you OK?’”
When she does get into a semi-public crying jag, she has to assure them, “No, this is good. It’s good crying. It’s all good tears, I swear!”
The actress, who won an Emmy for her Gambit, also says her boundless energy has even been put to the test. “I really struggle with wanting to give everybody everything all of the time,” she says. “One of the things that I’ve learned recently is you have to do what makes you feel good, not what other people tell you should make you feel good. If you spend what little time you have off only doing things out of obligation, your soul suffers from it.”
That said, Taylor-Joy knows she has it good. She says she has “great friends who tease me mercilessly if I even hint at being overworked or stressed. They’re like, ‘Oh yeah, honey, it’s so sad that you have to go get on a plane and go do whatever.’ It’s all in good fun, but they’re right, I’m very lucky. I’m very privileged. It’s so much, but it’s still so bizarre.”
(Via InStyle)