Ever since her breakout role in the harrowing horror film The Witch, actress Anya Taylor-Joy has stood out as not only a talent to watch, but a formidable, unflappable presence. Maybe that’s part of why her latest interviews surrounding George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, in which she stars as the titular heroine, have caused such a palpable ripple of alarm. Like some of her Mad Max predecessors, Taylor-Joy appears to have gone through hell and back in order to pull off the job.
The groundbreaking 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road notoriously required its actors, crew, and stunt team to perform while isolated in the desert in Namibia for months and, as its prequel, Furiosa necessitated similar filming conditions. Even so, one imagines that such extreme requirements would inspire some sense of camaraderie. But as Taylor-Joy told reporter Kyle Buchanan at the New York Times this week, “I’ve never been more alone than making [Furiosa]. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.”
When Buchanan pressed the actress for more details, Taylor-Joy demurred, saying, “Talk to me in 20 years.” She eventually opened up a bit further, explaining that because of Miller’s bare-boned script and hard-nosed vision for her character, “months” went by on set without her character speaking a single line.
