Anya Taylor-Joy has reignited Hollywood’s ongoing debate over method acting after a resurfaced interview clip spread across social media on August 1. 

The Golden Globe-winning star of The Queen’s Gambit argued that women rarely have the same freedom to lose themselves fully in a role the way some male actors are celebrated for doing, pointing to the responsibilities and different expectations placed on them.

“If you’ll notice, women don’t method act because we have things to take care of, so we can’t completely lose our minds,” Taylor-Joy said. 

She described acting as a kind of “controlled psychosis,” explaining that performers can spend 16-hour days thinking, moving and eating as someone else entirely. 

But she drew a clear line at using that immersion as an excuse for bad behaviour on set, saying, “If you’re too invested in being an a**hole, then that’s not going to be very fun,” and adding that actors carry a responsibility to the hundreds of colleagues relying on them to do their jobs well.

The clip quickly spread on Reddit and across social platforms, with many praising her framing of the double standard. 

One widely shared reaction summed up the online response: “She read the obnoxious actors to filth.” 

While Taylor-Joy didn’t use the word “punished” in the resurfaced excerpt, that was the interpretation many viewers took away regarding how women in the industry are perceived differently for similar behavior.

The comments echo remarks Taylor-Joy has made in the past about pushing back against how female characters and performers are expected to behave on screen and off. 

She’s previously spoken about advocating for “female rage” in her roles, including in The Witch, The Menu and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, arguing that women’s emotional reactions in film are too often sanitised. 

“I’m not promoting violence, but I am promoting women being seen as people,” she said in an earlier interview. “We have reactions that are not always dainty or unmessy.”