Anya Taylor-Joy Says ‘Precious’ Actors Probably Shouldn’t Work with Robert Eggers
Anya Taylor-Joy is giving fair warning to any fellow actors eyeing a Robert Eggers film.
The “Witch” breakout star, who teamed up again with the director on “The Northman,” addressed why Eggers is known for helming tough productions while speaking to IndieWire at the NYC red carpet premiere of Mark Mylod’s “The Menu” on Monday night.
“I think anybody that’s precious would have a difficult time, just in the sense it’s a difficult, physical shoot,” Taylor-Joy exclusively told IndieWire at “The Menu” New York premiere.
Her “The Menu” co-star Nicholas Hoult is set to lead Eggers’ long-awaited “Nosferatu” film, which initially was set to star Harry Styles. The “Don’t Worry Darling” actor and Grammy-winning pop star would have been cast opposite Taylor-Joy; both exited the project due to scheduling issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, and Hoult are now leading the upcoming vampire film.
“He’s going to be absolutely fine,” Taylor-Joy said of her “Menu” co-star Hoult collaborating with Eggers. “He’s an easy actor…I have no worries about Nick. Nick is going to be incredible. Nick is a dreamboat.”
Hoult added that Taylor-Joy called Eggers “incredible to work with” but said he also “demands a lot.”
“So I’m just very excited to be pushed and be a part of one of his movies,” Hoult said. “I’m a huge fan of his.”
Eggers previously told IndieWire that the long road to bring his “Nosferatu” remake to the big screen has been somewhat cursed. “I’ve been trying so hard,” Eggers said. “And I just wonder if [director F.W.] Murnau’s ghost is telling me, like, you should stop.”
Eggers’ interpretation of “Nosferatu” would be the second reimagining of Murnau’s film after Werner Herzog’s 1979 feature “Nosferatu the Vampyre.”
“Herzog’s movie — for me, and I love Herzog, he’s one of my favorite directors — but I do feel like it is uneven,” Eggers told IndieWire earlier. “Love the score, love [Isabelle] Adjani, love [Klaus] Kinski, but, like front-lit night scenes, what? That’s just Herzog doing Herzog. But the best sequence of that movie, for me, is getting to the castle with Das Rheingold, and I don’t even know if it makes sense in the film even though it’s awesome. But at the same time because of German history and German cinema history, it was his right to do that film, and he needed to do that film. I don’t know. Maybe Murnau’s telling me I don’t have the right.”
Reporting by Vincent Perella.