Anya Taylor-Joy reveals her teen spirit as she celebrates BAFTA nod

Anya Taylor-Joy says she was so determined to be an actress that she left school at 16 — and wrote her parents an essay to explain why.

The actress, who is among the nominees for the EE Rising Star award at this month’s Baftas, most recently appeared with James McAvoy in Split.

She joined Kate Bosworth and Samantha Barks at The Ivy Soho Brasserie last night for InStyle’s EE Rising Star party.

Taylor-Joy, 20, admitted her parents “freaked out” when she left school, but said: “We are incredibly close and they’ve always treated me as an adult.

“I wrote them an essay on why I was leaving with an intro, conclusion — the whole shebang.

“The gist was, ‘I’m leaving, even if you disagree I’m still doing it, so let’s do this amicably and be on the same page’.”

She added: “My mum’s got a video of me at six and she asks me what I want to be, and I say, ‘I want to be an actor’.

“She says, ‘Are you going to go to drama school?’ And I say, ‘No, I’m going to be in the right place at the right time and it’s going to happen for me’, with annoying conviction. So thank god it worked out!”

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