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It’s difficult to think of two more different people than Anya Taylor-Joy and Jack Black, and yet, the pair actually have a few unexpected connections to each other.
First and foremost, they’re both starring in the massively successful Super Marios Bros. Movie as Princess Peach and Bowser, respectively.
According to Taylor-Joy– who has blown up in recent years thanks to performances in projects such as The Queen’s Gambit, Last Night in Soho, The Northman, and The Menu — the duo’s connection actually goes deeper than that, as she recently said she partially credits the Jack Black classic School of Rock with helping her learn the English language (Taylor-Joy, who was born in Miami, was raised in Argentina).
“At the school I went to when I first moved to London they would play ‘School of Rock’ every Friday,” Taylor-Joy told Buzzfeed UK. “At that time, I didn’t really speak much English, if any, so that and ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Jumanji’ are like how I learned English!”
“I didn’t realize I was going to be doing the press day for this movie with Jack Black, so when I read that, the sound that came out of me was just this high pitch shriek that I was not expecting!” she continued.
Given the nature of modern animated filmmaking, Taylor-Joy actually didn’t meet Black until the premiere of the film last week (where she showed up in an awesome Princess Peach-inspired outfit):
“We haven’t met each other because we all recorded our parts individually, so I was super starstruck when I saw the schedule for today.”
While The Super Mario Bros. Movie is all that Taylor-Joy has on her schedule for this year, 2024 will be another massive year for her as she stars as Furiosa in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel and alongside Miles Teller and Sigourney Weaver in Scott Derrickson’s The Gorge.