Anya Taylor Joy recently turned 28 years old, and she’s currently starring in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. That’s why she’s on the cover of the latest Elle Magazine. Anya’s interviews are never full of gossip or shade, and this Elle piece is no different, but I still enjoyed reading it. She’s a sensitive person who feels like she really doesn’t fit in anywhere. She spent her early childhood in Argentina and she still considers English her second language. Her slippery nationality seems to enable her to play basically any character. Currently, she resides in LA with her husband of two years, Malcolm. Some highlights from Elle:
On Furiosa: “The most beautiful and heartbreaking thing about Furiosa is that she’s the embodiment of impossible hope—living in a world where everything is a violation to you. The air that you breathe, the lack of food, the fact that empathy is punished, that trust is punished. And throughout it all, she just has this relentless conviction that she’s going to make good on that promise she made. I still get chills thinking about it.”
The ‘Furiosa’ shoot: “I was really pushing the boundary of what my body and mind could do,” she says, recalling 3 A.M. rides to set. “I was driving through the streets of Sydney like, ‘I’ve not seen a single person in months. I haven’t seen anybody who doesn’t look like they’re in the Wasteland. I’ve been living in an alien world.’”
Why she took the role: “I wanted to really understand grit in a different way. Because I knew that I had it. But I understood that in isolation, I was going to really experience it. Okay, you’re in a house in the middle of nowhere with just your thoughts and this character. How do you cope with that? And when you don’t have comfort around you—when there’s nothing that you can turn to for distraction—how are you going to experience that? My favorite flowers have always been seeded dandelions or the daisies that grow through concrete. I think I wanted to be placed in concrete. I wanted to understand how that would feel. When you get too comfortable, you stop growing.”
A workaholic: “I woke up and realized I had not taken a break in 10 years. I’ve always been somebody who wants to take care of other people before taking care of myself. I have always been sick, and working, or exhausted at dinner. I was like, I need to figure out what I do for fun.”
Her marriage: After so many years on the move, she made a home with Malcolm McRae, 30, one half of the band more* (asterisk theirs). The couple’s September 2023 wedding at a historic palazzo in Venice included guests Cara Delevingne and Julia Garner. Naturally, the bride wore custom Dior. The couple had quietly eloped 17 months earlier, just before Taylor-Joy returned to Australia to shoot Furiosa. “We’re just real romantics. We were born on the same day. And we wanted to make sure that our first experience was something that was completely for us. So we eloped in New Orleans with our two best friends and had the time of our lives. It was magical. But I’m lucky to say that the second experience—with all of our families—was so beyond beautiful, and I just feel very, very lucky.”
She’s become obsessed with The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Reality TV used to depress her, but a friend insisted they watch that infamous finale—“Receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots!”—and now Taylor-Joy is hooked: “I don’t know what happened in my brain, but I’m so invested. I’ve never seen so many people yell at the same time.”
Anya and Malcolm were both born on April 16, but two years apart. I always find it spooky when someone has my birthday, but Anya is into it (typical Aries). Marriage agrees with her – this is the most settled and calm she’s ever seemed to me in an interview. Usually, she sounds like one ball of chaos, but I think she finally got some time off, she’s making a home with Malcolm, and she’s experiencing life away from her job. I’m not into RHOSLC, but yeah, that “receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots” clip is amazing.
Cover courtesy of Elle, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.