Anya Taylor-Joy slams method acting: stop using it as an excuse to be awful
While promoting Lucky, Anya Taylor-Joy told Complex she’s not impressed by a certain brand of method acting — and drew a pointed contrast with how women tend to work.
Here’s something a bit different from the usual red carpet soundbites: Anya Taylor-Joy has weighed in on the often tedious debate around method acting, and she’s not exactly pulling her punches. While promoting her upcoming series Lucky, Taylor-Joy gave Complex News a rather unvarnished take on why, in her view, women aren’t usually caught up in the whole method acting circus.
If you’ll notice, women don’t method act because we have things to take care of, so we can’t completely lose our minds,
That’s Taylor-Joy’s own logic for why you rarely hear about women wandering around set refusing to break character or demanding everyone call them by their made-up names. She described acting itself as "a controlled psychosis", in her words, and likened the process to having an imaginary flatmate holed up in her brain until the job’s done. Apparently, those closest to her have developed their own system for bringing her back to herself if she drifts too far into a character—they’ll call her by her role’s name and gently remind her it’s time to dial it down.
Taylor-Joy pointed out there’s a responsibility that comes with being the lead, both on- and off-set, and it’s not just about throwing yourself completely into the part. Being "too invested" to the point of being, well, an a--hole, doesn’t help anyone. You’re working with hundreds of people, she reminds us, so being an unbearable diva isn’t exactly a team sport.
Lucky and What’s Next
The new project in question is Lucky, a miniseries where she’s not just playing the leading role—Luciana "Lucky" Armstrong—but is also serving as an executive producer, in case you needed another reminder she’s one of Hollywood’s current triple threats. If you’re not familiar with her ascent, it kicked off with that quietly spooky performance in The Witch, quickly followed by parts in Thoroughbreds, Split, Glass, and of course the most recognisable, The Queen’s Gambit. That last one netted her the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film, by the way.
Taylor-Joy will also be seen in Dune: Part Three and The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.