Why Anya Taylor-Joy Skipped the 2023 Met Gala
The Queen’s Gambit and Mad Max: Furiosa actress Anya Taylor-Joy (pronounced like ANN-yah, not AHN-yah, everyone!) skipped tonight’s Met Gala, blatantly turning her nose up at all the fans (and directors) who keep saying her name wrong. Or, anyway, that’s one potential explanation for why she didn’t arrive as anticipated for fashion’s biggest night.
Her appearance was expected, given Taylor-Joy’s 2023 red carpet run thus far, in which she’s already sported several eyebrow-raising looks, including a red feathered Dilara Findikoglu gown, a taffy-pink Christian Dior racing suit, and a caped velvet Schiaparelli mini dress. But it’s possible that one glittering New York evening was enough for her this weekend, as the actress has always made it clear that her flirtation with couture is part of an ongoing performance art, rather than a true comfort on the carpet. “When I first started doing red carpets,” she told British Vogue in 2022, “I couldn’t handle the notion of being pretty. I was like, ‘I don’t do that. I don’t attempt it.’ I am a scummy, mud-caked ferret and striving for anything different felt disingenuous and scary.”
Even years later, her explosive fame—and her status not only as an actress but a luxury fashion ambassador, someone widely considered one of the most beautiful women alive—is still something to which she’s growing accustomed. To British Vogue, she revealed that it’s her relationship with rumored husband Malcolm McRae, in fact, that helps keep her grounded: “I’ve finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading. We’re basically 80 years old and seven at the same time, and it works really well.”
Still, the reason for her absence on Monday night seems to have nothing to do with her supposed discomfort in front of paparazzi. In an Instagram Reel the actress posted this morning, she shared a video of the red dress she wore to the Tiffany & Co. grand re-opening party at its flagship New York City store on April 27. She captioned the post, “Thank you NYC- you have my heart. Back to ????????✨” In other words: She’s headed back into production on a film project, leaving little time for the Met Gala. Maybe after the next movie, we’ll actually know how to say her name.
Culture Writer
Lauren Puckett-Pope is a staff culture writer at ELLE, where she primarily covers film, television and books. She was previously an associate editor at ELLE.