Anya Taylor-Joy Literally Swapped Roles For Edgar Wright's Last Night In Soho

"Last Night in Soho" brings together a handful of different fans at the center of a particularly striking Venn diagram: longtime admirers of Edgar Wright's reliably distinct tone and style, horror aficionados curious to see how Wright handles genuine scares, and Anya Taylor-Joy stans. After premiering at this year's Venice Film Festival to mostly positive reviews (including /Film's, which you can read here), we have only a few more weeks to wait before experiencing the twists and turns of Wright's latest ourselves.

Until then, we're still getting more compelling images and teasing quotes that hint at what lies ahead. Check out all the details below, including an interesting nugget regarding Anya Taylor-Joy's original role in the film.

Anyone who's watched the trailers for "Last Night in Soho" can't miss just how much the idea of mirroring plays a role in the events of the film. Edgar Wright's psychological horror/thriller stars Thomasin McKenzie as Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer with a preoccupation with the past, which somehow leads to her vivid dreams (or is it something more than that?) of embodying Anya Taylor-Joy's 1960s singer Sandie. 

But the moviemaking process can be just as liable to change as our tenuous connections with nostalgia, apparently. In an interview with Total Film, Wright revealed that Joy was originally meant to play the present-day role of Eloise. By the time production began, however, it became clear that Joy had the exact qualities needed to bring Sandie to life.

"Anya is such a chameleon. There's what she's like on film, and then also what she's like when you see her in a fashion spread or on a red carpet."

It's oddly fitting that the close dynamic between Eloise and Sandie in the body-swap narrative would also be represented in the actual casting process itself, but it's hard to argue with Wright's description of Joy when considering just how naturally she fits in as a singer who commands attention with ease. That's not to say McKenzie didn't put in the work when it came to portraying Eloise, however; McKenzie herself takes note of the amount of research she put into the role.

"I was constantly listening to the film's playlist, and when I was still in Wellington, I spent a lot of time with one of the head teachers at the fashion school. She taught me how to sew, and how to sketch different designs. I made a couple of clothing items, and did a lot of drawing in my Ellie notebook."

Total Film has more exclusive images from the film, but in the meantime you can read the five main takeaways that /Film's Chris Evangelista had from watching a screening at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. The rest of us have to wait until "Last Night in Soho" releases on October 29, 2021.