Anya Taylor Joy is one of two covers for British Vogue’s April issue. She’s promoting The Northman, but she’s really taken over as the It Girl who is cast in everything. She’s getting all the scripts and she’s scheduling projects back-to-back. She sounds very proud of The Northman and her energy is that of a workaholic actress whose happy place is on a film set surrounded by creatives. The fact that she’s also one of the must-watch women on the red carpet is icing on the cake. You can read her Vogue profile here. Some highlights:
Modelling had never crossed her mind when she was younger: “When I first started doing red carpets. I couldn’t handle the notion of being pretty. I was like, ‘I don’t do that. I don’t attempt it.’ I am a scummy, mud-caked ferret and striving for anything different felt disingenuous and scary.” But she had “read that sometimes models became actors” and acting was all she wanted to do.
Her parents let her go off model & act at a young age: “They treated me like a little adult very early on,” she says. Being the youngest of six children (her eldest three siblings are from her father’s first marriage), helped: “Maybe they got tired of a certain type of parenting?”
She partied even in her teen years: “I just did a lot of it when I was a teenager. I grew up in London, you know? By 19, I didn’t have a lot of curiosity about many things.”
She still loves a rave: She still “loves raving”, but more as a form of meditation now. “One of the reasons I love Berlin is that clubbing is not a night-time activity,” she says. Taylor-Joy was there filming The Queen’s Gambit and on Sundays would go to a club by herself “at 11.30 in the morning, dance until 8pm, not talk to anybody, then go home, have a bath, eat some spaghetti and wake up at 4am to go to work. I felt great.”
She reads a novel a day: “I said to my partner [the musician and actor Malcolm McRae] the other day that he was my hobby. I see reading as something that I have to do. He loved it because he’s the same. I’ve finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading. We’re basically 80 years old and seven at the same time and it works really well.”
She hates casual dating: “I was not a good dater and I’m quite glad to not be. I hear stories from my friends and I’m like, ‘God, I would suck at that.’” Whenever she was “down and out about love” she’d watch episodes of Sex and the City. “I remember when I met Sarah Jessica Parker, I was going through a horrible break-up, and I went up to her and I was like, ‘I need you to know that I’m watching you and Big and it’s giving me hope.’ And she was like, ‘That things will work out?’ and I said, ‘No! That this will end and I will finally move on!’ She was like, ‘Oh, sh-t. Sorry.’”She’s figured out her dream life: “I want to live on a farm. I want goats, chickens, ducks, horses, just all of it. I want to work, come into the city when I want to – and then disappear and ride all day.”
As British Vogue notes in their text, it sounds like her dream life is back in Argentina, where she spent her early childhood. She loves Argentina! It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she eventually moves back there full time, buys a farm and a place in the city and uses that as her homebase. As for raving-as-meditation… she’s saying that in Berlin, you can go to a nightclub around lunchtime and dance for nine hours and go home? The headache I would have. And I’m a little bit wary of people claiming to read a book a day. Like, who has time for that?? And are you really absorbing the book or are you just speed-reading just to say you’ve read it?
Cover & IG courtesy of British Vogue.
I can read fast and I do absorb what I read. Last year I read more than a book a day – 375. It also helps to have no kids and not work full-time — lots of time to read.
This is me as well.
I read a book a day too, even when I had kids and worked, (I was also in grad school and HAD to a lot of the time) but I started reading really young, grew up on a farm where there was NOTHING to do but read, and I read constantly so I read FAST.I don’t watch tv, and only watch occasional movies, and those are usually old, lol. My favorite filmmaker is Busby Berkeley. (For living in LA , I see NOTHING it’s hilarious) Both my ex husband and now husband are in the entertainment industry and routinely gave me books, articles, and scripts to read because they know I can do it fast and give them good coverage. (And yes, I have worked covering scripts but hate it-I love reading scripts but so many are soooooooo bad and derivative).
I don’t usually EVER tell people this cause it seems like it’s boasting and it’s not, it’s just my life. I kind of wish I could enjoy sitcoms, but I just can’t, and I really hate reality tv etc. I’ve always been a cranky old man who is happy alone with her whisky and her books. lolololol.
And I get this girl. I put on my dating profile I was looking for someone to be alone WITH, and my now husband totally got it and we can be together 24/7 and there is no forced conversation. We can just be, and it’s glorious! Over ten years now!!
Amazing. I am a book every 3-ish days. For the last 2 years I read 120 books and track them on Goodreads. Reading is therapeutic to me.
I really love her and I think that cover is gorgeous. Nice to have an ‘it girl’ who is A, a great actress, and B, not obnoxious.
I think many Berlin clubs are open until 9/10 a.m. or noon the following day. I know there are some that open Friday and don’t close until Sunday night. But I haven’t been to a club in years, those days are over.
That’s a great cover.
About 10 years ago, I spent 48 hours in Berlin just clubbing non stop (no drugs). I was probably too old even then, but Berlin is this new Bohemia. It’s like the culture of London and Paris back when they still had young, artsy, rebellious cultures, which was before my time. Or even Berlin itself pre-Hitler, when it was a hub of youth and new, liberal ideas. So, I’m glad I gave myself that last hurrah of youth to experience what that must have been like.
That sounds like so much fun. I always wanted to do something like that but now everyone has little kids/babies. My sister might be up for it. I used to hate going out because you never knew if the guy at the door liked your shoes or even your face. We later found places where you could turn up in sweats if you really wanted to though. Berlin likes to pretend not to give a f*ck but if you turn up at Berghain and look like you dressed up, they might not let you in either. … I’m tired just thinking about it. 🙂
It’s mostly techno clubs and mainly throughout the weekend, not really during the week. I am sure some special clubs only for the hip kids and celebrities open all hours but it’s not like every single Berlin club does it, especially not many alternative/rock clubs.
The most famous one is probably the Berghain (they didn’t let in Musk, which was hilarious) and since its entry policies are rather strict, I think most celebrities try to get in, only to say they got in (no camera recordings allowed in there for utmost privacy).
Generally in Berlin cameras are banned in clubs (not just Berghain), phones always get tape put over the camera.
Berlin is mecca for the club/rave scene, and there’s something for everyone. More about the music than being seen. I used to feel very comfortable going out to dance as a solo female traveller. Had to be smart about being safe, but way less ‘seedy’ than other cities in terms of people just letting you be & dance.
Lots of daytime options if that’s your vibe. Just need to ask around with the right people.
But yes, the focus is very much on the music – not ‘being seen’ or ‘hooking up’ like some cities.
Which is why I think it’s the best nightlife in the world 🙂
shes right. the best parties in Berlin start sunday noon 🙂 its the best city in the world, imo
I can read a novel in a few hours. Reading is like breathing to me and one of the stress effects of the early pandemic/my divorce was that I simply could not concentrate to read. It was horrible and lasted about six months.
I’m the same and I find it’s the only time I can fully get out of my own head.
Love her work and her look. That being said, she’s been giving me Cool Girl vibes for a while now (not in a good way).
Yea, this interview…she sounds like she’s trying to be cooler & older than she is.
Who has time to read AND club??
I feel like the only one that doesn’t like her. Her answers are so pretentious to me and always rub me the wrong way.
I agree with you!!
I’m suspicious of someone who keeps track of the number of books they’ve read. Sort of the same quantity-over-quality vibe as someone who needs to tell you how many people they’ve had sex with.
I do this. But when you read 100++ books a year it’s a lot easier to go back and reference what you’ve already read.
She sounds like someone who doesn’t sleep for more than a few hours.
Also I love her cover photo!
A book a day? I have other things to do, gardening for one, play with my cat, nap, take a walk, cook and eat, errands. I once read a book in one day, a mystery, couldn’t put it down!
Serious question: can people really club for this long without drugs? How can you dance for 8 hours?
The sheer black catsuit and pose reminds me of an old photo of Marianne Faithfull.
Living in Berlin in 2016 was one of the highlights of my life… I quit my job and went there to live a very bohemian life for the summer/fall. Music in Berlin is a religion and yes, places are open from Friday to Sunday evening and they don’t close meaning that you can go out at night and stay out till next day (obviously drugs help and most ppl do them freely) Or you can just choose to show up in the morning or afternoon and stay the day.
Some places even awesome outdoor areas where you can dance and listen to music or chill and eat . Whatever your option is, if you’re a fan of music, especially electronic music, it’s the best scene on the planet. It’s most inclusive – lgbtq etc. and if you look too fancy they might not let you in. Definitely not a place where you go to be seen/dress up but a place where you can enjoy music and meet people from all over the world. And more than likely, she was doing drugs, but technically you can go out during the day and dance and not indulge. But 10x more fun if you are high.
Anyways, I am back in the United States and have a demanding job, but I think back very fondly to the times I spent in Berlin.
I think she’s interesting and also a damn good actor