Anya Taylor-Joy has spoken about how watching movies helped her pick up English as she grew up. When she moved to London and started school there, language was a challenge, yet cinema became a practical teacher. She recalls that Friday evenings at school often featured screenings, and those moments provided a natural immersion in everyday speech, slang, and idiomatic expressions. Among the films she watched, the Harry Potter series and classic comedies stood out, not just for entertainment but for the way they demonstrated pronunciation, rhythm, and conversational cadence. She also mentions that the Jumanji movies, along with the broader catalog of English-language cinema, played a role in shaping her language skills, offering context, repetition, and memorable lines that helped her understand tone and nuance.
During a public press tour for a major project, Taylor-Joy shared excitement about the chance to collaborate with Jack Black, a performer she admired from the School of Rock era. The project featured a cast where voice work and on-screen performances came from different sessions, with celebrities voicing characters while keeping their performances separate. When she learned that their paths would cross in the same production, she described feeling an unexpected surge of enthusiasm and energy, a personal moment that underscored how intersecting career milestones can feel almost fated. This anecdote highlights the way a single role or collaboration can create a sense of shared history among actors who came up in the same era of cinema.
Born in Miami, Anya Taylor-Joy spent part of her early childhood in Argentina before her family moved to Florida for holidays and later relocated to London. The move presented linguistic and cultural shifts, but it also offered opportunities to absorb English through daily life, conversation with peers, and exposure to diverse media. The experience underscores a broader narrative about how language acquisition often follows migratory paths and the way immersive environments—whether family conversations, school, or entertainment—shape fluency and confidence in a second language. Over time, this background helped her develop a natural command of English that supports her work across international film and television projects, allowing her to connect with audiences worldwide while maintaining a distinctive voice that resonates across cultures.