Actress Anya Taylor-Joy shows a sneaking respect for her latest character, Lucky Armstrong, a con artist on the run in the new Apple TV+ series Lucky. She says: “I find it so interesting that we all just call them con people, but it's confidence artists. That's what it is.”The voice of Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) which made $1.3 billion worldwide and Beth Harmon in the Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit (2020) - which reached 62 million households in 28 days - Anya is already a talisman for Lucky, which is Apple’s number one show worldwide.Fascinated by the ethos of the con artist, Anya, 30, believes much of their success is down to people’s unwillingness to accept that they are being conned. “I was really interested in how willing people are to believe in what you tell them - and in the way that you convey that message. People just really do want to believe you at your word,” she tells The Arts Hour, on the BBC World Service.‌Citing evangelism as an example of people’s desire to trust charismatic leaders, without concrete proof, she says: “They want to believe. They just want to be told and people want structure.” Lucky, released on July 15, is Anya’s first time as executive producer, a role she took after being approached by Reese Witherspoon's media and production company Hello Sunshine. The miniseries is based on the 2021 novel by Marissa Stapley.Legally Blonde star Reece said recently of the actress: “Anya was always Lucky. She was the first and only actress we shared the book with. She’s a born producer. She cares deeply, connects viscerally to the character. ”The series opens to a night of celebrations, between Lucky and her boyfriend, Cary (Drew Starkey) following a successful multimillion dollar heist. But she wakes to find both he and the proceeds have gone. She’s left penniless and on the run from both the FBI and ruthless crime boss Priscilla (Annette Bening) who wants the money. Meanwhile, Lucky is advised by her jailbird dad, John (Timothy Olyphant) who is also trying to manipulate Priscilla from his prison cell.‌While the fast-moving action - teaming violence with car crashes and acrobatic chases - is exhausting, but compelling, Anya’s hypervigilant character is totally beguiling. Keen to prove herself as a producer, as well as through her acting, Anya describes her excitement at being invited to join the cast and the production team by Hello Sunshine - calling it “extraordinary.”The actress, who also has a production company, Lady Killer, says: “This was my first opportunity to really do it [produce] and I thought, ‘OK, if I love the book and I feel like I have something to add here, this is such a good first opportunity.' I read the book and I was fascinated by the idea of somebody in a genre that we've all seen and we all love, which is, you know, cons. It's sexy and it's George Clooney [Danny Ocean in the Ocean’s movies] and it's a fantastic genre.”Digging deep into the psychology not just of the con artist, but also of being a woman on the run, she adds: “What is the reality of that like? What is it like when you can't stand still? When nobody knows your real name? When you're constantly having to lie in order to be able to get to the next day? I was curious about that.”‌Married secretly in New Orleans in 2022 to musician and actor Malcolm McRae, 32, Anya, who splits her time between LA and London, has a life story as fascinating as the characters she plays. Born in Miami, Florida, one of six children - four being from her dad’s first marriage - she was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina; a Spanish speaker, until she was six, when the family moved to London and she struggled to fit in.Her Argentine dad - with a British father and Anglo-Argentine mother - Dennis Alan Taylor, left banking, aged 40, to become an offshore powerboat racing champion. Her mum, Jennifer Marina Joy, a psychologist, was born in Zambia to an English diplomat father and Spanish mother.Anya, who learned English by reading Harry Potter books, once said: “I didn't really feel like I fit in anywhere. I was too English to be Argentine, too Argentine to be English, too American to be anything. The kids just didn't understand me in any shape or form... I used to get locked in lockers.”‌Aged 16, everything changed when she was spotted by Storm model agency boss Sarah Doukas - who discovered Kate Moss - as she walked her dog past Harrods. She was signed up, making it clear that acting, not modelling, was where her heart lay.But her ethereal beauty has won her big contracts - she adorns billboards around the world as the face of Dior and Tiffany - while her acting career has sky-rocketed. She won a Golden Globe award for best actress and a Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance for The Queen’s Gambit and has a net worth estimated between $10 - $15 million.Appearing in everything from House of the Dragon to horror films and Peaky Blinders, she is keen not to be pigeon holed. Meanwhile, her closeness to the characters and the shape of the series, as executive producer of Lucky, clearly gave her a kick.She says: “Because I produced it, I was so [much] a part of every single conversation of creating this world. That meant that I felt like I had a real understanding of not only Lucky, but also exactly how to slot myself into this thing that we had meticulously put together."‌She continues: “It was such a fabulous way of doing research for this, because I knew what it was going to sound like, I knew what it was going to look like, I knew what I was going to wear. So, you're very much in control, very involved. I am detail orientated and I'm also really passionate and excited and obsessive about the thing that I care about, which is this art form.“I feel so grateful to have worked with wonderful people, who were empowering and who cared and taught me a lot along the way. What a great first experience.”Anya wants her portrayal of Lucky to draw viewers in and make them question what they would do in her shoes. She says: “Something that I was really interested in is, I wanted there to be a form of audience wish fulfillment, where you place yourself in her shoes and you think, ‘gosh, I hope I'd be able to think of something like that.’ Or ‘I hope that I would be that, you know, quick-witted, essentially.’”‌After playing characters like Beth Harmon, a chess champion, despite her flaws; or Princess Peach, an impressive leader, Anya also enjoyed the challenge of playing a master of survival, who is, nevertheless, a second generation criminal. She says: “I've done a lot of projects where I'm supposed to be the best in the world at whatever physical activity I'm doing and that's been so much fun, because it scratches the perfectionist side of my brain. But for Lucky, she's not a superhero.”* The Arts Hour can be found on BBC Sounds.