Anya Taylor-Joy asked to change scenes in four movies for the same reason

With Furiosa in cinemas now, Anya Taylor-Joy got candid about why she advocated for changes to certain scenes in her past movies.

During an interview with British GQ, Taylor-Joy revealed that she often fights for her characters to express more rage than sadness as it allows the character to be more three-dimensional.

“I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for fighting for feminine rage, which is a strange thing, because I’m not promoting violence – but I am promoting women being seen as people,” Taylor-Joy said. “We have reactions that are not always dainty or un-messy.”

Taylor-Joy went on to explain that she spoke to the directors of The Witch, The Menu, The Northman, and Furiosa, and got them to agree to her changing the tone of some pivotal scenes in each movie.

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In The Witch, Taylor-Joy’s character was supposed to cry after being accused of possessing an evil spirit, but the actress couldn’t muster up the tears. “Eventually I said, ‘She’s angry; she’s f**king pissed. She’s been blamed time and time again, and she’s not doing anything. We have to stop with the crying,” the actress said.

For The Menu, Taylor-Joy was appalled that her character was meant to cry when it was revealed that her dinner date brought her to the restaurant knowing that she would be murdered.

“What planet are we living on?” Taylor-Joy said. “I was like, ‘Let me explain to you: I am going to leap across the table and try and literally kill him with my bare hands.’”

The Northman director Robert Eggers told British GQ that, because of her work in The Witch, he sought out Taylor-Joy’s advice on how her character should act when trying to discourage a man from touching her against her will.

“It was Anya’s idea for Olga to douse her hand with her own menstrual blood before slapping Fjölnir in the face,” Eggers said. “[It was] very strong, defiant and memorable choice.”

Finally, despite only having 30 lines in Furiosa, the actress fought for the opportunity to let her voice be heard while in character as she explained, “There’s one scream in that movie, and I am not joking when I tell you that I fought for that scream for three months. With George [Miller], it’s a long game.”

Despite wanting to showcase feminine rage in her movies, Taylor-Joy has stressed that she’s not an angry person and her desire to express this emotion in this way stems from years of internalizing her own anger and “[only getting] angry on other people’s behalves.”

Furiosa is in theaters now. You can find out more about Furiosa’s filming locations, whether there’s a post-credits scene, and if Mad Max turns up at all.