Anya Taylor-Joy's role in Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho played a big part in her being cast as Furiosa in George Miller's upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road prequel.
In an interview with Empire for a special "Celebration of Edgar Wright" issue, George Miller revealed fellow filmmaker Edgar Wright screened him an early cut of Last Night in Soho, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Sandy, a dazzling wannabe singer. Impressed by her acting talents, Miller quickly realized she could play a younger version of Charlize Theron's Furiosa.
"I'd known about Anya but I'd never seen her in a film until I saw her in Soho," Miller recalled. "And I remember thinking, 'Gee, she's interesting.' I started to say to [Wright], 'I'm looking for someone to cast as Furiosa,' and I barely got the sentence out before [Wright] said, 'Don't go any further, she's great, she's gonna be huge. She's fantastic to work with.'"
Wright had been so emphatic in his response to the casting suggestion that Miller moved things forward and lined up a virtual audition, where he tasked Taylor-Joy with performing the iconic "I'm Mad As Hell" speech from Sidney Lumet's 1976 film Network. Miller was impressed with what she delivered and sent it on to Warner Bros. for further approval.
"Anya did one version, which was really good," he said. "I gave her just a couple of simple notes about intention and she just absolutely nailed [it]. I think it was done on an iPhone. I sent it to the studio. I explained why I thought she was right for the role. I said I was really happy to talk about it but it was so persuasive that we didn't need to talk."
Furiosa will hit theaters on June 23, 2023. The film is written, directed, and produced by Miller, and stars Taylor-Joy in the title role alongside Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Miller wrote the script with his longtime partner, Oscar-nominated producer Doug Mitchell. Together, they've crafted a film that will be structured very differently than Fury Road.
IGN's review of Mad Max: Fury Road noted the importance of the film's "over-the-top stunts and eccentric characters and designs" as well as "troubled figures like Max himself and Furiosa," but said, "it's the overriding sense of the film's uniqueness, its striving to be something more than just another action movie, that is most impressive."
Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.