Anya Taylor-Joy has described making her voice heard as a female actor in Hollywood, saying: “eventually you get stepped on enough that you start to stand up and say no”.
The Queen’s Gambit star said she had “always been forthright with my ideas” but was “naturally a people pleaser”.
The 26-year-old American actress rose to fame with her performances in the Netflix hit show and Peaky Blinders, and has recently starred in blockbuster movies including The Northman and Last Night In Soho.
She is to receive the actress award at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2022.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar UK magazine about making her voice heard in Hollywood, she said: “I’ve always been very forthright with my ideas.
“But there’s definitely a point where, unfortunately, I think societally it’s been embedded in our brains to think, ‘maybe it’s not my place to say this, or maybe I need to stay quiet for a bit longer and then offer up a solution, because I don’t want to overstep’.
“In the past couple of years, I’ve definitely learnt how to say ‘Hey, that’s actually not OK with me’, or ‘You’re not listening to me’.
“I don’t think I’d have got there had I not been pushed in a certain way, because I’m naturally a people pleaser.
“But eventually you get stepped on enough that you start to stand up and say no.”
Taylor-Joy has won several accolades, including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award, in addition to a nomination for a Primetime Emmy.
The full interview with Anya Taylor-Joy is available in the December issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, on newsstands from November 11.
