Anya Taylor-Joy is calling for a more authentic and powerful portrayal of women’s rage. The actress, who has given numerous remarkable performances within a decade of her debut, has earned a place among some of the best-rising stars in the industry.
As she gears up to make her debut as the fierce and strong-willed Imperator Furiosa, Taylor-Joy recently opened up about how she has pushed several of her characters to express more than just tears in their scenes, emphasizing challenging the stereotypical portrayal of feminine rage on-screen.
Anya Taylor-Joy Advocates for Authentic Female Rage Portrayal
Anya Taylor-Joy is set to captivate audiences once again with her upcoming film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, taking on a role that allows her to showcase a broad spectrum of emotions, including rage and anger, something she has constantly advocated for.
In a recent conversation with GQ, she opened up about her commitment to ensuring her on-screen characters hit the right emotional notes, particularly when it comes to expressing rage. She argued that women’s reactions are not always “dainty or unmessy” and emphasized the need for women to be portrayed as individuals with diverse emotional responses.
I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for fighting for feminine rage, which is a strange thing because I’m not promoting violence – but I am promoting women being seen as people. We have reactions that are not always dainty or unmessy.
This is something that she has been constantly advocating through her on-screen characters since her debut film, The Witch, be it her character showcasing rage in The Menu or suggesting a bold and defiant action for her character in The Northman.
Anya Taylor-Joy Championing Female Rage in Character Portrayals
During her conversation with GQ, Anya Taylor-Joy also shared instances when she advocated for authentic emotional portrayals in her roles, starting from her feature debut, The Witch. She recalled one of the scenes, in which her character is dragged and accused of being evil.
During the sequence, her character in the film, Thomasin, was supposed to cry, but Taylor Joy demanded to be more realistic with her approach to the character, asserting, “We have to stop with the crying.”
“Eventually I said, ‘She’s angry; she’s f**king pissed. She’s been blamed time and time again, and she’s not doing anything,” she recalled. Similarly, in the dark comedy The Menu, when her character learned of the sinister plot, Taylor-Joy rejected the idea of a single tear, opting for a visceral reaction.
“What planet are we living on?” the actress said, as she recounted, “I was like, ‘Let me explain to you: I am going to leap across the table and try and literally kill him with my bare hands.” And director Mark Mylod and co-star Nicholas Hoult embraced the idea.
Beyond emotional depth, Taylor-Joy has also pushed for her characters to exhibit defiance while filming The Northman. “It was Anya’s idea for Olga to douse her hand with her own menstrual blood before slapping Fjölnir in the face,” Robert Eggers said about a scene where Taylor Joya’s character had to discourage a man from touching her against her will.
The actress also proposed various experimental ideas for her upcoming film. While some were successful, she noted that not all of them made it into the final cut of the post-apocalyptic action drama film.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set to release on May 23, 2024.
