Robert Eggers‘ 2015 feature directorial debut The Witch (watch it HERE) was a major breakthrough for the film’s star Anya Taylor-Joy, who has been hugely in demand ever since and just recently finished working on George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, where she plays the title character. (Taking over from Charlize Theron, who played Furiosa in Fury Road.) Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Taylor-Joy revealed she had a difficult decision to make when she signed on for The Witch, as she had also been offered a role in a Disney Channel pilot at the same time. She chose the low budget horror movie over the Disney Channel show… and it proved to be the right choice.
Thinking back on getting the offer to star in The Witch, Taylor-Joy said, “I remember it was the same day I got asked to be in a Disney Channel pilot, and it was so exciting to be offered anything at all that I ran around the house like a loon. But I just had this really good feeling about The Witch that made me willing to forego the Disney experience for the thing that felt unknown to me, the thing that felt sacred.”
She says that working on The Witch in its remote shooting location “gave me the cornerstones of the way I work now, which is essentially the idea that there is no hierarchy on set: you work hard, you stay on top of the shots and you don’t assume anyone else is going to do that for you. Your title doesn’t stop at actor – you’re a creative on this film, and that’s how you need to approach it.“
Unlike most viewers, she didn’t have a positive reaction to seeing her work on the screen the first time she watched The Witch. “I thought I’d done a really bad job, and I saw myself failing miserably with this dream I’d had for such a long time. I guess I’m not always the best judge of my own work.“
Scripted by Eggers, The Witch has the following synopsis:
In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan’s faith, loyalty and love to one another.
Taylor-Joy is joined in the cast by Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson.
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