“I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for fighting for feminine rage, which is a strange thing because I’m not promoting violence – but I am promoting women being seen as people,” she told British GQ.
“We have reactions that are not always dainty or un-messy.”
The ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ actor shared the time she first fought for her character’s rage. It was her feature acting debut in Robert Eggers’ ‘The Witch’.
It had been written that her character, Thomasin, would cry during a scene where she was dragged through her family’s farmyard after being accused of being an evil presence inside her home.
“Eventually I said, ‘She’s angry; she’s f**king pissed. She’s been blamed time and time again, and she’s not doing anything. We have to stop with the crying,’” Taylor-Joy recalls.
Another film she spoke up to make the change was during the making of ‘The Menu’ where her character had to have a single tear rolling down her cheek after she discovers her date brought her to a luxury private dinner to have her die.
“What planet are we living on?” she said.
“I was like, ‘Let me explain to you: I am going to leap across the table and try and literally kill him with my bare hands.’”
Despite her plight for female rage, Taylor-Joy says she’s “never been an angry person.”
“For a long time the only time I ever got angry was on other people’s behalves. I’ve always internalized this thing of ‘I’ve done something wrong. If you treat me badly, it’s because I am the problem.’”
Taylor-Joy also explained that it took her months to convince Mad Max director George Miller to allow her character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga let out a scream, as her character does not have much dialogue.
“I do want to 100 percent preface this by saying I love George and if you’re going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller,” she told The New York Times.
“But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa’s war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.’ That’s it, that’s all you have.”
“We’re animals and there’s a point where somebody just snaps. There’s one scream in that movie, and I am not joking when I tell you that I fought for that scream for three months. … With George, it’s a long game.”
