Anya Taylor-Joy has a memorable explanation for why the mythology surrounding method acting tends to center on men. Speaking with Complex News while promoting her new Apple TV series “Lucky,” Taylor-Joy described acting as a deeply immersive process that can take over her body and behavior—but only within certain limits.
“If you’ll notice, women don’t method act because we have things to take care of,” Taylor-Joy said. “So, we can’t completely lose our minds.”
The actress instead described her own approach as “a controlled psychosis,” explaining that performers spend long days pretending to be another person, thinking their thoughts and moving through the world in their clothes and surroundings.
“You are pretending to be somebody else and having their thoughts 16 hours a day and moving like them and in their house, in their clothes,” she explained. “So, there is an element of having a sister or a roommate check in here for a little bit.”
Taylor-Joy said the people closest to her understand when a character has lingered a little too long. Occasionally, they will even address her by the character’s name as a signal that it is time to let the role go.
Still, she stressed that an actor’s immersion should never become an excuse for treating the people around them badly.
“You’re going to work with hundreds of people, and it is your responsibility to be good to them and to help them do their best job,” she said. “If you’re too invested in being an asshole, then that’s not going to be very fun.”
Earlier in the conversation, Taylor-Joy said she once dealt with the emotional difficulty of leaving characters behind by moving directly from one production to the next. She would give herself approximately an hour on the flight to grieve the role before arriving on another set and becoming someone new.
Her secondary career ambition, apparently, is joining the “Twilight” universe should Hollywood eventually decide to reboot it.
Taylor-Joy identified herself as Team Edward—although she admitted that revisiting the books as an adult raises several uncomfortable questions—and said she recently introduced the films to her husband, Malcolm McRae.
Asked whom she might play in a new version, Taylor-Joy quickly ruled out the franchise’s central heroine.
“I don’t think I’m a Bella,” she said, initially floating Alice Cullen before warming to the possibility of playing one of the villains. “It would be fun to be a baddie.”
Taylor-Joy also defended the enduring appeal of the frequently mocked franchise, arguing that fandom does not require pretending the object of your affection is flawless.
“There’s no better feeling than being a fan,” she said. “Fandom is love. That’s all it is. It’s love and excitement and support and community.”
No new “Twilight” film has been announced, but should that inevitable reboot ever materialize, Taylor-Joy has at least made her preferred lane clear: not Bella, and preferably bad.
