Anya Taylor-Joy, the voice actor for Princess Peach in the Super Mario Bros. Movie, said she made the Mushroom Kingdom monarch an empowering role model – and was pleased to find she wasn’t the only one. Taylor-Joy, speaking on the Total Film podcast, said she was “impressed and excited” to discover that the film’s creators also envisioned Peach as a strong, capable leader.
“I’m really proud to be a part of this, and I’m proud to be a part of… Peach is an empowered woman,” she said. “And if you think about it – and this is when I get really nerdy – if you think about the storyline, it makes more sense that she’s strong and in control, because she is the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. And that’s not an easy job. So if she was constantly being plucked out of her castle, she wouldn’t be very good at ruling, would she?”
The only other time Nintendo’s fungal aristocrat held a leading role was in 2005’s Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS. The game drew some criticism for doing away with traditional Mario powers and replacing them with Peach’s extreme emotions.
Taylor-Joy said that Nintendo and Illumination struck what she believes is a strong balance between the fresh and familiar for every character that longtime series fans and newcomers alike will enjoy. The idea echoes what the film’s directors previously said, when they called Luigi the film’s “damsel in distress” who Mario would do anything to rescue.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie releases on April 5, 2023, in theaters.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
