When she received the proposal to star in Gambito de dama , Anya Taylor-Joy had already developed an interesting career in which she had managed to split her work between the two screens. In fact, her debut was in an episode of the British series Endeavour one year before she starred in The Witch for Robert Eggers, an independent film success that served as a springboard while she was also seen in her first regular role in Atlantis , another English series.
Later, more established, she starred in the BBC’s The Miniaturist in 2017 and during breaks from filming her various horror movies, she lent her voice to one of the characters in the new version of Dark Crystal that The Jim Henson Company made for Netflix. And just before her big leap to stardom, Anya was part of the cast of Peaky Blinders in its fifth season. There is no need to recall what happened after she won the Golden Globe for her wonderful portrayal of chess player Beth Harmon.
For a whole five years she dedicated her time to cinema, until she was called by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine company to read a novel they had just acquired. The proposal was not only to be the protagonist but also to join as a producer, something that was particularly attractive to her.
The actress also participates in the executive production of the series alongside Reese Witherspoon
The book in question was Lucky which Canadian Marissa Stapley published in 2021 and which has not yet been translated into Spanish. Reese shared with The Hollywood Reporter her reasons for not accepting a no as an answer from the actress who is now 29 years old: “Anya was always Lucky. She was the only one with whom we shared the book. Also, she was born to be a producer. She is someone who connects viscerally with her characters,” she said. And Taylor-Joy, for her part, explained why she accepted: “Lucky is a person who cannot stay still, and I love always being on the move.”
In the novel, and in the adaptation made by Jonathan Tropper, Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong is an expert thief who has pulled off a big heist with her partner, not imagining that she will be betrayed by him. Without money and with a huge debt, she will be at the mercy of several individuals interested in catching her, including her mother-in-law, a threatening Annette Bening, FBI agent Billie Rand (Anjanue Ellis-Taylor), and a mysterious individual named Harris Dutch (Clifton Collins Jr.) who always seems to be one step ahead of the others.
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Throughout the seven episodes that Apple TV will begin airing on July 15 and that will be released in batches, Lucky will spend her time escaping and trying stratagems to outrun the others. The impressive cast also includes Timothy Olyphant as the protagonist’s father behind bars, with whom she has a very special relationship, and the always brilliant William Fichtner.
As for Tropper, his selection by Witherspoon to become the showrunner is no coincidence. After graduating in creative writing from New York University, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family dedicated eight years to making jewelry cases, taking advantage of nights and weekends to write.
That’s how his first novel, Plan B , came about, successful enough for him to change professions. Among his several books, You’re All Leaving became a film based on his own script starring Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, and Jason Bateman, which gave him the support to create his first series, Banshee , which aired for four seasons. He also wrote scripts for See and was the creator of Warrior and Hidden Vices , the dark comedy that recently premiered its second season on Apple.
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