Anya Taylor-Joy talks about playing the younger version of Furiosa in the upcoming Mad Max prequel

Just a day after it was revealed she will portray the younger version of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa in a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Anya Taylor-Joy is opening up about the role.

The 24-year-old actress appeared on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast on Wednesday, where she opened up about the casting.

She also showered praise upon Charlize Theron and her performance in Mad Max: Fury Road, which was both a critical and commercial smash hit five years ago.

Taylor-Joy was announced alongside Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen III (Watchmen), though their roles were not yet announced.

When asked what it felt like when the news was announced on Tuesday, the actress said she had, ‘so many feelings.’

‘I am currently in Belfast, shooting a movie, and I was here when I saw Fury Road for the first time. So I walked past the cinema where I first was like amazed by this incredible mind.

She added how it was ‘difficult to put into words’ and that she was ‘humbled and grateful,’ though she had a rather unique first reaction.

‘The first thing that went through my head when I found out I was going to do it was, “I am so excited to work so hard,” she said.

‘I am going to work so hard at this. The level of commitment that has been shown before me, I endeavor to match that, and that makes me really excited,’ the actress added.

She also said that she has, ‘so much respect for the originators of this crazy world,’ like writer-director George Miller and the original Furiosa, Charlize Theron. 

 ‘(Charlize) did such an incredible job and it was so beautiful and I can’t even think about trying to step (into her shoes),’ she shared.

‘It has to be something different, because it just can’t be done,’ she added, referring to Theron’s performance.

She added that she’s been in Belfast filming director Robert Eggers’ new film The Northman, and the first person she heard from after the news dropped was her The Last Night in Soho director Edgar Wright.

‘The first person to text me, which, I shouldn’t be surprised, was Edgar, cause he and George are friends, and he was the first one to be like, ‘I’m excited… I knew about this beforehand but now the world knows, so congratulations.’

She said that when she’s not filming, she’s quarantining by herself, and her ‘celebration’ for landing the role was, ‘watching Harry Potter and eating great foot by myself.’