The Furiosa: A Mad Max star opened up in 2016 about how she’d previously been taunted by her peers
Anya Taylor-Joy once issued a heartbreaking response to a reporter who asked if she had ever felt ‘self-conscious’ about her eyes.
It’s been over a decade since Taylor Joy, 28, made her debut in an episode of the English detective drama series Endeavour before going on to star as Thomasin in Robert Eggers’ The Witch.
Since then, the actress has appeared in everything, from The Menu to Amsterdam, and, more recently, as Alia Atreides in Dune: Part Two, as well as the titular character in George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Many television fans will also remember the Florida-born favourite from her appearance in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit.
While promoting M. Night Shyamalan’s psychological thriller, Taylor-Joy spoke to W-Magazine about her Hollywood success thus far.
During the interview, the journalist described her eyes as ‘beautiful’, before adding: “They’re so far apart.”
“When you were a kid, did they make you self-conscious?,” the reporter went on.
This led the Golden Globe-winning actor to reflect on the many harsh comments that have come her way regarding her appearance.
“I can definitely remember when Facebook was a thing and I was never aware that my eyes were far apart and then someone tagged me in a picture with a fish and they were like, ‘This is you ’cause your eyes are like here.’”
“And I was really upset about it and I didn’t enjoy it and I kind of stopped looking in mirrors for a very long time.”
The actor went on to admit at the time that she still didn’t ‘really spend a lot of time in front of mirrors’ so she wouldn’t have to ‘deal with [her] face’.
“Unfortunately, y’all do,” she joked.
Sharing further memories from her childhood, Taylor-Joy recalled how the placement of her eyes also impacted her ability to play sports.
She explained: “I will say though that it’s interesting in sports because I became very aware that when I was smaller, my head was a lot more compact and so my eyes really were on both sides of my face.
“It became common knowledge in the playground that if you wanted me to catch a ball, you had to throw it at the side of my head ’cause if you just threw it straight here, I’d just be like, ‘Oh, my God. What? What happened? What’s going on?'”
Since then, however, Taylor-Joy said her face has ‘grown a bit more’.
“I’m kind of growing into myself. I’m a bit less awkward,” she said.
“Though I’m still growing a lot. I’m still getting taller – I grew like two inches last year. I don’t really know what to do with all of my limbs.”
Taylor-Joy might not have thought she knew what to do with her limbs, but whatever she did has obviously proved successful as she continues to land huge roles in Hollywood.
Her next projects include the Apple TV+ survival action film The Gorge and Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice.
The latter sees Taylor-Joy joining an ensemble cast which includes Chris Evans, Salma Hayek, Charli XCX, and One Day’s Ambika Mod.
