Anya Taylor-Joy: 'I likened Beth's passion for chess to my passion for acting. It's a calling'

It’s been an amazing year for the 24-year-old star of The Queen’s Gambit. She reflects on Netflix’s unlikely chess drama hit and her next film, an Edgar Wright psychological thriller * Jen Reid: ‘I felt a surge of power. Colston is gone. Now there’s a new girl in town’ * See the Observer’s faces of 2020 in full Talking to Anya Taylor-Joy about The Queen’s Gambit often feels like poking your nose into somebody else’s relationship. So intensely does she feel about her character in the hit Netflix drama, heroine Beth Harmon, it’s almost like a love affair. “Beth is the character I’ve given the most of myself to,” says the 24-year-old actor. “I didn’t realise until I met her that she was a voice I’d had in my head for as long as I remember. I’m goofier and lighter-hearted than Beth – but we have a lot of the same struggles and at our core, we’re pretty similar. I was heartbroken when I had to stop playing her. I’m just glad I got to spend seven hours with her. If it had been a two-hour movie, I would’ve had to be dragged out kicking and screaming.” Continue reading...
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