Actress Anya Taylor-Joy may have loved the Oscar-nominated outfits she wore in the 2020 romantic dramedy Emma., but personally, she’s a lot more comfortable playing a character who could roll around in the dirt a bit.
“In Emma., the clothes added a whole different level to the performance, but I couldn’t sit down,” Taylor-Joy, 26, told Remezcla during a recent interview. “You had to be steamed every two seconds. In this new film, it was my job to be muddy.”
In The Northman, Taylor-Joy, who is Argentine-British, plays Olga, a Slavic woman, and the romantic interest of the film’s protagonist Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård). Amleth is a Viking warrior prince who is seeking vengeance against his traitorous uncle (Claes Bang) who murdered his father (Ethan Hawke). The film also stars Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, and Björk.
“There are photographs of me on the set where I’m just lying on the wet, muddy ground and am so happy just soaking in the energy like the hippie that I am,” Taylor-Joy said. “If I had done that on Emma., I don’t think it would’ve turned out well for me.”
It turned out well for Taylor-Joy when director Robert Eggers called her up to see if she wanted to travel to Northern Ireland and Iceland to shoot his revenge tale. It had been seven years since she worked with Eggers. She was 18 years old when the then-first-time feature director offered her an opportunity to star in her first movie – the critically-acclaimed 2015 horror picture The Witch. Over the years, Taylor-Joy hadn’t forgotten where her career started.
“He called me about [his 2019 film] The Lighthouse and said, ‘Listen, there isn’t a character for you in it, I’m sorry,’” Taylor-Joy recalled. “I said, ‘No, I miss you!’ Once that was finished, he gave me a call and said, ‘Listen, I’m making this crazy, epic Viking movie [and] there’s a role that I would love for you to play.’ I said, ‘Yup, I’ll be there!’”
Taylor-Joy said it was an easy decision to take on the role. She missed her “original film family,” which not only included Eggers, but also the film’s director of photography, production designer, and costume designer – all of whom she worked with on The Witch and reunited with on The Northman.
“It was magic for all of us to be back together again and tell this story,” Taylor-Joy said. “[Robert] is one of my most beloved collaborators, and he is my family. There’s something particular about the people that make Robert’s films. We’re all a little strange.”
The trajectory of Taylor-Joy’s career has skyrocketed since The Witch. She became a household name with the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit and continued flourishing on the big screen with movies like Split, Glass, and Last Night in Soho. Next, Taylor-Joy will lend her voice to the character Princess Peach in an untitled Super Mario Bros. animation. It’s a role, she said, that was fun to prepare for.
“I love that I get to play Mario Kart and pretend that it’s work,” she said. “I’m like, ‘I’m having a great time!” It’s like, ‘Wait, I have to go do some research! I’ll be back in an hour!’”
The Northman, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy, premieres at theaters on April 22.