Anya Taylor-Joy Opens Up About How Marriage Has Made Her Bolder

Few actors of Anya Taylor-Joy's generation have navigated the leap from prestige television to blockbuster franchises with quite such deliberate intention, and it turns out that same sense of purpose extends well beyond her professional choices. In a candid new interview with Elle UK, the 30-year-old actress offered a rare and genuinely illuminating glimpse into her private life with husband Malcolm McRae — and what she described reveals something about how personal grounding can quietly reshape a creative life.

A Partnership Built on Security

Taylor-Joy was characteristically thoughtful in articulating what marriage has meant to her, according to Page Six. Rather than framing it in conventional romantic terms, she spoke about the structural effect it has had on her sense of self. Having a partner she describes as a best friend moving through life alongside her has delivered a kind of emotional bedrock she admits she never actively sought. "It wasn't something that was on my list," she noted, before explaining that possessing something so grounding has paradoxically freed her to take greater professional and personal risks. There is a logic to that — the artist who feels genuinely secure at home often has more to give on set, more willingness to inhabit discomfort in service of a role.

Staying Connected Across Demanding Schedules

The practical reality of maintaining intimacy when both partners operate in demanding, travel-heavy industries is something Taylor-Joy addressed with refreshing honesty. The couple has settled into a morning check-in ritual, though the logistics are decidedly low-tech: McRae, 32, uses a basic phone with limited connectivity, and Taylor-Joy herself has largely stepped back from social media. Rather than framing this digital detachment as a deprivation, she described it as an act of presence — accepting that she may sometimes feel out of the loop in exchange for being more fully available to the life directly in front of her. It is a trade-off that an increasing number of public figures have discussed, though few articulate the reasoning as cleanly as she does here.

If you've been following her busy 2025, you may have seen Anya Taylor-Joy steps out in Florida with her husband during the Lucky press tour, a reminder that McRae is a visible and consistent presence in her public life, even as the couple guards the details of their relationship carefully.

Two Weddings, One Enduring Romance

The timeline of Taylor-Joy and McRae's relationship has an almost cinematic shape to it. The pair met at a music studio in 2021 and by April Fools' Day 2022 had eloped in New Orleans — just the two of them and their closest friends — before Taylor-Joy flew to Australia to begin production on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. It was a ceremony designed entirely for themselves, stripped of spectacle and obligation. In a previous interview with Elle from May 2024, Taylor-Joy described the impulse as pure romanticism, noting that she and McRae share the same birthday and wanted their first formal commitment to belong wholly to them.

The grander celebration followed in October 2023, when the couple exchanged vows again at Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a fifteenth-century palace on Venice's Grand Canal. The guest list — which included Cara Delevingne, Julia Garner, Nicolas Hoult, and Miles Teller with his wife Keleigh — reflected the breadth of Taylor-Joy's industry relationships, while the Venetian setting lent the occasion the kind of historical weight she clearly gravitates toward.

What Comes Next

Taylor-Joy continues to operate at a remarkable pace. She recently joined the cast of Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, adding yet another landmark franchise to a résumé that already spans Split, Emma, The Queen's Gambit, and the Mad Max universe. Her Apple TV+ thriller Lucky has also made a significant cultural impression — debuting at number one on the platform after just a single day of streaming. In that context, her comments about feeling emboldened to take risks carry some weight: whatever she and McRae have built together, it seems to be working.