(classical orchestral music)
- Anya Taylor-Joy, I have a question for you,
- Uh-huh?
- Emma is one of Jane Austen's
most beloved novels of all time, why do you think
people have such an affection for this story?
- I think, with period dramas, it's quite easy
to forget that they are people, too.
They're wearing corsets,
but they have emotions, and they get messy.
And I think Jane Austen did a really good job
showing that with Emma because of the way
she wrote the book, it's kind of flitting
between her perspective but also the perspective
of the world on her, and Jane Austen herself said
that she'd written a character that she wasn't sure
anybody but herself would like.
And I think people kind of love that about Emma,
because she's not perfect.
You can definitely see her flaws.
- As an actor taking on this role
that Jane Austen so famously said is unlikable,
is there any hesitation with that?
How are you able to like Emma?
- Oh my goodness, that was my main thing,
when I first met with Autumn, I was like,
"Hey, so, like, this quote has stuck in my mind forever.
And I really wanna do it that way."
I wanna make sure that when she's mean,
it's not like,
Oh, it was- no, it was mean.
- Right.
- It was cruel, it was a cruel thing to do.
But I think what's wonderful about Emma
is that she's so young that you can kind of forgive her
for all of these things, because she has a good heart,
she's coming from a good place.
Mr. Elton, Miss Harriet Smith.
(giggling)
He's in love with you.
- I also am just so obsessed with the fact
that you call Emma messy,
because even more so than being mean,
I look at her as someone who's just naive and messy.
How are you able to find a likability inside of her?
- I feel my characters very, very intensely,
and there are definitely days that I'd go up to
our director and I was like,
- Do you advise me?
- Oh no, no, no.
The words must be your own.
You must be the best judge of your own happiness.
You have to kind of grow with it and I think
whenever I would come up with that blockage,
whenever I'd come up with that, kind of thing of
I'm uncomfortable doing this it's because it was
an emotion that I never wanted to admit that I, myself
as a human being had had
So I think by the time that I got to the end of it
cause she'd like grown and I was like,
well done Emma, yes.
We're making good choices.
- We all do have a little bit of Emma inside of us.
Do you think that is why this story
has made it through the test of time?
- There's just something in that and I think,
something that's really beautiful about this story
and Emma actually grows, it's kind of like a fantasy land
of like, if you could explain to somebody everything
that they've done wrong and they could grow from it
and become a better person, what would that look like?
So I think the fact that it's also a story of redemption
is something that people like.
- Earlier you were talking about you feel your characters
so deeply, I think about your career, you've had so many
different roles, 'The Witch,' 'Thoroughbreds,'
'Emma,' 'Glass.'
Walk me through your decisions before you take a role,
when you know you're going to feel it so intensely.
So it's, does this person belong to me?
Am I the person to tell this story?
Do I feel like I can tell it right?
But the actual living with them is so different
from character to character
and sometimes it can be an uncomfortable experience.
There's a man here.
He abducted us and he's going to kill me.
I don't consider myself method.
But I am spending 18 hours a day being another human being
and trying to justify their choices
and thinking the way that they think
so it would be unnatural if they didn't rub off on you
for that period of time.
But 'Thoroughbreds' for Lily for instance,
I defended her the entire time we were filming that movie
and then the movie ended and I was like,
- You ever think about just killing him?
- How would you?
But it's all a bit weird,
(laughing)
- What a mind (bleep), dude.
- Yeah it's all a bit crazy.
- Have there been any times on set or when you get off set
and you feel a release?
Like you're able to get out of the character.
- I had a very weird year last year
where I had the wonderful opportunity to do three movies
I really wanted to do but they were all shooting
at the same time.
So I had to do 'Emma,' I had a day off, I did the next one,
I had a day off and by the time I got to the third character
there was no separation between what she was going through
and what I was going through.
She was having a bad day, I was having a bad day.
- You're so young and I think that work ethic is something
that so many people, myself included, can learn from.
So where does it come from, what's your motivation?
- I just love what I do
and whenever people are like, what do you do?
I'm like, I act, I create, that's what I do.
I see myself as an artist,
I'm so lucky to have the platform to be able to do that
and that people let me do it,
I feel deeply grateful for that.
(upbeat music)