After launching into stardom off of the success of The Queen’s Gambit — and quickly following that up with some major film roles — Anya Taylor-Joy is back on the small screen with her new series Lucky.
In the Apple show, produced by Reese Witherspoon‘s Hello Sunshine, Taylor-Joy stars as a reformed con artist who is forced to go on the run, attempting to leave her life of crime behind for good. Witherspoon called up the star and asked to produce the series — based off of Marissa Stapley’s 2021 novel of the same name — together, as Taylor-Joy “felt like I had something to offer it, I had a take that would serve the story well.”
She told The Hollywood Reporter at the L.A. premiere that her return to TV “feels wonderful” as “it gives you the opportunity to spend more time with these characters and kind of render the video game of the story; you get seven hours rather than two.” And after recently playing an action hero in 2024’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, she had the stunt chops, but had to approach this role quite differently.
“I have been very fortunate to play characters who are the best in their field in everything they do, and what that gives you is a certain level of protection in the sequences, because you’re making everything very slick,” Taylor-Joy explained. “With Lucky, I was told ‘Hit everything. I want it sloppy, I want you bouncing off the walls,’ so really the only way to do it was just to throw yourself head in. And by the end of it, I did feel like I had run through all of California.”
