Anya Taylor-Joy: I won't play Cupid for my friends like Emma

TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images
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Anya Taylor-Joy has said she does not play matchmaker to her friends like Jane Austen’s Emma, whom she played in the recent movie.

When asked if she had set anyone up before, the actress, 24, right, said: “No! God, no! I try to stay so far out of it, and anytime I’ve had friends that fancy each other, I’m like, ‘I’m not getting involved! I love you both equally, please don’t break each other’s hearts.’”

Taylor-Joy starred as Emma Woodhouse in Autumn de Wilde’s adaptation of the book alongside Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth and Bill Nighy.

She was born in Miami but moved to London aged six. She was signed to Storm Model Management as a teenager after being spotted in Harrods, but soon signed to an acting agent.

Focus Features

(Focus Features)

Her breakthrough role was in 2015 period horror The Witch, and playing Emma this year was her first leading role.

Taylor-Joy said she “lived” with the character of Emma during filming. “I’m not ‘method’, but I do spend 16 hours a day behaving as another person and they don’t go away when I go home,” she said.

Focus Features

(Focus Features)

“All of my characters are twin sisters I live with continuously. And I think with Emma, whenever I was upset at her vanity or upset when she made a blunder, I felt it very deeply, as I was almost talking to a younger version of myself.

"And so I expected a lot from her.”

Emma is out today on Blu-Ray and DVD from Universal Home Entertainment

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