10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT
ANYA TAYLOR-JOY
DOLLFACE Anya Taylor-Joy is making moves. The Queen’s Gambit starlet, 26, wowed viewers as troubled chess prodigy Beth Harmon on the Netflix series. But she’s drawing on a different set of skills to voice animated Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is based on the Nintendo video game franchise. To prepare for her role as the Mushroom Kingdom’s resident regent, Anya says she “spent hours at the arcade.” Here are ten things you don’t know about the willowy beauty.
1 She calls her American birth a “fluke” because her Argentine-based parents were vacationing in Miami at the time of her arrival.
2 Her first language was Spanish.
3 She lived in Buenos Aires until age six when her family relocated to London.
4 She dropped out of school at 16 because of bullying and recalls, “I used to get locked in lockers. I spent a lot of time crying in bathrooms.”
5 She mastered English by reading Harry Potter books with an uncle.
6 She was scouted by a modeling agent at 17 while walking her dog outside Harrods department store in London and reveals, “It was my first time wearing heels ever.”
7 She claims to have delivered a scripted nosebleed on cue while shooting director Autumn de Wilde’s Emma and jokes, “I didn’t know I had that talent until that scene.”
8 She admits having an “unhealthy fear” of baboons and adds, “They really, really panic me. I don’t even know why. I love animals.”
9 She can’t pick just one favorite curse word because “I swear like a sailor.”
10 She plays the ukulele.