{"id":535345,"date":"2026-07-06T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/535345\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T07:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:30:13","slug":"getting-lucky-actress-anya-taylor-joy-takes-on-first-time-producing-duties-for-her-new-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/535345\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Lucky: Actress Anya Taylor-Joy takes on first-time producing duties for her new series"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 When Anya Taylor-Joy talks about her new project, she is as enthusiastic about producing it as she is about starring in it.<\/p>\n

She headlines Lucky, a seven-part action thriller debuting on Apple TV on July 15, playing a con artist on the run after a multi-million-dollar heist goes awry.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Straits Times and other media over Zoom in June, she is clearly proud of the fact she was one of the show\u2019s executive producers \u2013 a fact she brings up unprompted several times.<\/p>\n

The series, which co-stars Timothy Olyphant as her father and Annette Bening as the mob boss on her tail, is based on Canadian author Marissa Stapley\u2019s 2021 crime novel of the same name.<\/p>\n

The screen rights were acquired by American actress Reese Witherspoon\u2019s production company Hello Sunshine, which is behind the Emmy-winning drama Big Little Lies (2017 to present) and the 2014 Oscar-nominated films Gone Girl and Wild.<\/p>\n

Taylor-Joy, a British-American actress Emmy-nominated for her chess-prodigy role in period drama The Queen\u2019s Gambit (2020), was offered the role of Lucky Armstrong, a reformed criminal forced to return to her old life for one last job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first received a call hearing that Hello Sunshine wanted me to read a book and that they wanted to co-produce it with me, which is a dream sentence to hear,\u201d says the 30-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once I read the book I thought, \u2018Oh, I actually have something to contribute. As a producer, you want to feel you have something \u2013 or fingerprints you can put on something \u2013 that will make it, hopefully, elevated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dual role scratched an itch for the actress, who headlined the apocalyptic action film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) and voiced Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros animated franchise (2023 to 2026).<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a part of the producing team \u2013 and in on all the different decisions I\u2019ve always wanted to be a part of \u2013 meant I got to shape the world this character was going to inhabit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anya<\/p>\n

Anya Taylor-Joy at the unveiling of Miley Cyrus\u2019 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on May 22.<\/p>\n

PHOTO: REUTERS<\/p>\n

Asked how she balances what she wants to do in her career versus what people in the industry want, she says it helps having her own production company LadyKiller, which is attached to Lucky as well as her upcoming Netflix thriller series, How To Kill Your Family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a dance, much like in life. You can control certain things, but if you\u2019re going to be surprised by the universe, you have to leave some space for the divine \u2013 you can\u2019t plan the things that will work out far better than you imagine,\u201d says Taylor-Joy, who will appear in the science-fiction blockbuster Dune: Part Three this December.<\/p>\n

\u201cLadyKiller allows me to be obsessed with the things that I\u2019m obsessed with,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI care about every aspect of how you make something \u2013 I\u2019m interested in how it works, and I think that\u2019s what I really enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if I\u2019m a part of all those discussions, then I get to show up (on set) and completely relinquish control because I\u2019ve done all the preparation beforehand.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was drawn to the character\u2019s ethical murkiness as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feminist in me was a bit frustrated at seeing a lot of morally ambiguous men and not that many morally ambiguous women (on screen),\u201d says Taylor-Joy, who is married to American musician and actor Malcolm McRae, 32.<\/p>\n

\"Anya<\/p>\n

Anya Taylor-Joy at the Christian Dior Cruise 2027 collection showin Los Angeles on May 13.<\/p>\n

PHOTO: REUTERS<\/p>\n

Her character offers a different take on the archetypal con artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love con men in movies, and they were always very slick and sexy when I adored them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Lucky gave a different vision of what it is to be somebody who can never sit still, and who has to take from other people \u2013 that was a side of the con I\u2019d never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she feels there is a lesson in how the character is betrayed by some people and helped by others.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know that old expression, \u2018When a door closes, a window opens?\u2019 The idea that everything is supposed to happen in a certain way, or whatever you focus on is the thing that magnifies?<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody can let you down, then you can meet somebody else \u2013 and that will open up a whole other world of possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucky premieres on Apple TV on July 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 When Anya Taylor-Joy talks about her new project, she is as enthusiastic about producing it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-535345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}