Anya Taylor-Joy Was "Going Through Some Emotional Stuff" Before Starring In "The Queen's Gambit"

    "I was just really broken and frightened of everything."

    Joyann Jeffrey
    by Joyann Jeffrey

    BuzzFeed Staff

    It might be hard to believe, but Anya Taylor-Joy was going to end her acting career before starring in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit.

    She revealed during a recent interview with Elle magazine how her Emma costar and real-life friend Mia Goth encouraged her not to give up on her profession.

    (L-R) Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Autumn de Wilde, Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn attend the Los Angeles premiere of Focus Features' "Emma."
    Michael Tran / FilmMagic / Getty Images

    "I had been working back to back — just before Emma, I'd done two projects at the same time, and I was going through some emotional relationship stuff,” Taylor-Joy recalled. “So at the beginning of 2019, I was just really broken and frightened of everything, and Mia and I were driving back from rehearsal.”

    "I turned to her and said, 'I think I'm going to quit acting. I don't think I can do this.' And I’ve never seen Mia look so worried in my life,” she continued. “She was like, 'But … that's what you do. You cannot … what are you talking about?'”

    “I was like, 'I think I need to back out now and just let it be and try to take care of my heart,'” Taylor-Joy said. “And she was like, 'No, that would be really bad. You can't not have the thing that is your oxygen.' I'm really glad she said that."

    Taylor-Joy decided to keep pushing forward and she thanks Goth for always supporting her. In fact, the Radioactive star recalled how she and Goth became besties in the first place.

    "She was the first actress close to my age that I met, and we had a very cool conversation where I was like, 'I love you,' and she said, 'I love you.' And I said, 'I'm always going to have your back,'" Taylor-Joy recalled. "She was like, 'I'm always going to have your back.'”

    “It was like, 'OK, cool. Let’s progress in this very wild industry, knowing that we’re going to take care of each other,’” she continued.

    Thankfully, Taylor-Joy decided to keep pursuing her dreams. Her next movie, Last Night in Soho, will premiere on Oct. 22.