Anya Taylor-Joy on ‘Lord of the Rings’ Role & Childhood ‘Free Willy’ Dreams (Exclusive)

Anya Taylor-Joy and Timothy Olyphant talked to “Extra” about their new crime thriller “Lucky,” based on the best-selling book. 

In the series, Anya plays a con artist named Lucky on the run after a heist goes sideways and Timothy plays her grifter father John.

Anya’s character is put through the wringer, but she explained why she didn’t do a lot of training for the physical stuff. 

She shared, “For Lucky because she's not somebody who is naturally that athletic. The director Jonathan Van Tulleken and I talked a lot about kind of trying to do everything as badly as you could so that the audience feels a real sense of risk and they feel like you're really getting by on the skin of your teeth. So, it was fun.” 

Timothy dished on his character, saying, “It's so complicated. He's so much contradiction. He's so sweet and charming and loving and just a disaster of a father."

We asked the stars what their Plan B would be if they had not pursued acting. Anya spoke about her childhood dreams to work with tigers and orcas and how “Free Willy” inspired her to act. 

"I really wanted to be a made-up job, which was a large animal biologist. I really wanted to work with tigers and orcas, and I needed to find a job that like combined those two mammals together. So, I think I'd probably be working in some sort of uh conservationism or I'd be a travel journalist.”

Anya added, "I wanted to be an actor because I saw ‘Free Willy.’ I wanted to be the kid that rode the whale.”

Timothy shared, “If it didn't work out, I always had the ceramics to fall back on… I went on a ceramic retreat last week… I was down there learning to make pots with my wife. We were had this amazing guy….  teaching, like, ancient pottery.” 

Olyphant joked, “But the money's not the same… So, I'm going to try to keep this going for a little longer."

Plus, she talked about the big news that she’s joining the “Lord of the Rings” universe! 

Anya shared, “I am a lethal elf,” adding, “I'm so excited. I've been a big fan for a long time and I'm a huge fantasy nerd. So, the idea that I get to inhabit this world is so thrilling.”

Timothy shared, “I'm heading off to do ‘Alien Earth’ Season 2… Got to have some bleached eyebrows in a matter of days.”