Anya Taylor-Joy nearly quit acting before landing her role in 'The Queen's Gambit'.
Anya Taylor-Joy
The 25-year-old actress has won critical acclaim for her role as chess prodigy Beth Harmon in the Netflix series but revealed that she considered walking away from the industry after some "emotional relationship stuff" and was persuaded to carry on by her 'Emma' co-star Mia Goth.
Anya recalled: "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.
"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 was like, 'But... that's what you do. You can't not... 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.' 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."
Anya also discussed her tight-knit bond with Mia and how they both promised to support each other throughout their careers.
The 'New Mutants' star told the new issue of America's ELLE magazine: "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.'
"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.'"
Tagged in Mia Goth Anya Taylor-Joy