Pawn to be wild! - ANYA'S NEXT BIG MOVE

The Queen’s Gambit star is set to beguile us again as a '60's singer

Just two years ago, most film and TV buffs would have drawn a blank at the name Anya TaylorJoy. Yes, the young actress had appeared in a smattering of big-budget productions like Peaky Blinders and The Miniaturist – but she was hardly a household name.

To be fair, her moniker is still not exactly on everyone’s lips, but Anya’s performance in Netfl ix’s Emmy Award-winning hit The Queen’s Gambit has thrown her career into the stratosphere to the point where she can hardly walk down the street without causing ripples.

“It can be very frightening when there are whole bunches of men with cameras attached to their faces running after you down the street,” the 25-year-old confides.

“The first time it happened, I went home and cried, but then I figured it out. The next morning I went out and I said, ‘Hello, my name is Anya. Let’s lower down the camera and let’s meet. I am not prey. I don’t want to run. I’d rather be like, I understand this is your job and I hope that you can understand that I am a woman of a certain size and I feel intimidated right now, so can we make it work so you can do your job and I can feel less frightened?’”

Since her star turn as enigmatic chess prodigy Beth Harmon, Anya has been in hot demand and her latest project is also set in the 1960s.