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One of the first Facebook photos Anya Taylor-Joy was tagged in was a picture of a fish.
I must have been about 10 or 11, she says.
I was so confused.
I went to my parents like, Why?
My sister sort of piped up, Its because your eyes are really far apart.
You look like a fish.
It was the most horrifying feeling Im now suddenly aware of something that I cant ever be unaware of.
Some stars spend years searching for the thing that will become their trademark.
While the first few months of the year are generally considered acinematic wasteland, theyve been good for Taylor-Joy.
Each winter, shes starred in a new piece of ambitious genre fare.
I dont give a fuck where the camera is, she says.
I thought,Oh my god, my dreams gone.
Its worth noting this was not the reaction most viewers had to her performance.
TheNew Yorkercalled her remarkable, with a wide-eyed innocence entwined with a thread of cunning.
The BAFTAs nominated her forthe Rising Star Award.
TheHollywood Reporterdubbed her the industrys next big thing.
Its been a quick rise, but Taylor-Joy is accustomed to those kinds of sudden shifts.
Argentina is all green and I had horses and animals everywhere, she says.
All of a sudden I was in big city and I didnt speak the language.
(ReadingHarry Potterhelped with the latter.)
Taylor-Joyhas spokenabout having felt too English to be Argentinian, and too Argentinian to be English.
As an adult, though, shes largely made peace with her weird mash-up of identities.
(Shes not kidding.
(She wrote them a letter.)
When I didnt get it, she recalls, I bawled my eyes out.
I didnt know how to do a Yorkshire accent, and I didnt know the words.
And Rob was like, Lets give it a go.
And obviously, here we are.
Anya seemed like someone who wouldnt survive well in Puritan society, Eggers says.
(Taylor-Joy recently finished shooting the sequel,Glass.)
Like many young actors, Taylor-Joy says she abhors the thought of careerism.
Ive never taken a job just to take a job, she says.
I feel like that would be a bit soul-destroying for me.
Its not quite Method, but its close.
Her characters, she says, are real to me.
I really defend them and I start to adopt some of their sensibilities.
ForThoroughbredsthis proved a particular challenge, as her character Lily, is, by most interpretations, a sociopath.
People on set would be like, God, shes such a bitch.
Id be like, Dont talk about my character that way!
Only after filming was done could she admit that Lily was pretty awful and toxic.
But her loyalty runs deep: Saying that aloud, she said, still felt like betraying a friend.
Taylor-Joy says shes of two minds about the bigger films shes been working on lately.
I like the intensity of having a short amount of time, she says.
You feel like youre moving towards the same goal.
She has no permanent address, and says she suffers from constant jetlag.
Last year, she estimates, she had a grand total of four days off.
In the meantime, she does admit to curating her career in one respect.
Taylor-Joy identifies as Latina, but says shes very wary of auditioning for Latina roles.
Knowing what you look like can be horrifying, but sometimes, its a necessary wisdom.
