Anya Taylor-Joy interview: a powerful Princess Peach just “makes more sense”

The moment that Anya Taylor-Joy’s version of Princess Peach was shown off in the second trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it was apparent that she was going to be bringing a new side to the character that we’ve never really seen before.

Although Peach has been a beloved part of the Mario franchise since her debut, up to this point, she’s mostly embodied the ‘damsel in distress’ trope to a fault. There are a few exceptions - the main one being her starring role in the spinoff game Super Princess Peach, not to mention her inclusion in the Super Smash Bros. series. However, Taylor-Joy’s take on the character has fully solidified Peach as a powerful, self-sufficient princess, and she told GAMINGbible that it was important to everyone working on the film - including Nintendo - to make her this way.

Take a look at our full interview with Anya Taylor-Joy below.

“I've loved the process of making the film, but having now seen it, I was just so touched by how strong she is and how cool she is, and the fact that that's going to be a role model that kids can have nowadays is just… it's unbelievable. I left feeling very inspired by her,” Taylor-Joy said of her experience bringing Peach to life.

I asked the actress if she’d had any direct influence over this new spin on Peach, and she revealed that her “only qualm” about taking the role was the possibility that the beloved princess might remain dependent on the titular moustachioed brothers. In fact, if this had been the case, she “didn’t really want to do it”. However, this didn’t end up being a concern at all.

“I was really impressed, and so excited by the fact that all of us - the filmmakers, Nintendo, Illumination - we were all on the same page about where we wanted Princess Peach's direction to go,” she told me. “Miyamoto-san loves it, and I mean, that's really the only person that you can hope to impress with something like that. And so I'm really, really glad that we've all chosen to go in this direction.”

Speaking to Taylor-Joy, it was clear how passionate she is about the film itself, and especially Peach’s empowered character direction. She expressed that she’s hopeful that Peach will retain her reimagined temperament going forward, and pointed out that it “makes more sense” to do so. She eagerly explained: “If you think about it - I'm going to nerd out right now - but if you think about it story wise, you have to be pretty tough to be queen of the Mushroom Kingdom. You have to be pretty tough to rule an empire, essentially. So I think it makes more sense for her to be this way.”

Despite the fact that Peach’s persona has been revamped, the actress told me that voicing the character in a way that still pays homage to her original portrayal was “very important” to her.

“I originally thought about just staying very faithful to the games, and then realised that that wasn't really where the writing was going, and that I had to try and find a blend where hopefully I could still give a few little moments where fans could be like, 'Oh, yeah, I've heard that before, that’s something that I recognise as Peach’, whilst also trying to make her a 3D individual. And I loved working with the filmmakers on that, and I feel like they really had my back,” Taylor-Joy said. “They always just played me the voice back, and I'd be like, 'Oh, yeah, there's Peach'. Because I've got quite a big range, so I can kind of flip between all of it, and it was nice hearing her again and being like, 'Oh, yeah, that's the pocket. That's what I'm going for.’”

Universal Pictures

However, as we all know, it doesn’t always go down well online when changes are made to fan-favourite characters. Thankfully though, Taylor-Joy told me that fans have been very supportive of her casting: “I’ve been really lucky that people have been kind to me, and I hope that that continues. I think they can hopefully tell that I just really love my job, and you know, I'm a bit of a big nerd and just wanna keep making movies. So people have been very kind, and I hope that this is a Peach that they can get behind and that they enjoy.”

I asked if the actress had felt an element of pressure knowing how much gamers love the original version of Peach: “Only after I couldn't do anything about it,” she laughed. “My brain just hides facts that I can't quite cope with until I'm at a state where it's been done. And so I was so excited to get the job, so excited to make it, and then once it was over, I was like, 'Oh, wow, people really love her, okay. Whew, I hope they enjoy this.' Yeah, listen, this is a movie made by fans, for fans, so hopefully the fan experience is great.”

The big question, of course, is whether this is the last we’ll see of Taylor-Joy’s portrayal of Peach, and the answer is: hopefully not. When asked if she’d be down to return as the character in the future, she had no hesitation in saying: “I’d love to.”

She continued: “I love this experience, I think she's the coolest character. It fills me with so much joy to think that I can give - of course it's for adults as well - but that Peach can give this much joy to kids is just so much fun, because my filmography has been pretty, uh, not child friendly. So it's nice to have something where I can be like, 'Bring everybody, bring your grandma, bring your kids, bring the whole family.' And I love the collaborators, so I’d be so down to do it again.”

This interview was edited for clarity. The Super Mario Bros. Movie releases in UK cinemas 5 April 2023.