Anya Taylor-Joy Makes History at the Golden Globes with her Win for “The Queen’s Gambit”

Argentine-English actress Anya Taylor-Joy made history at the Golden Globes on Sunday, Feb

Anya Taylor Joy Golden Globes

Photos: Netflix/@cinemaexcelsior

Argentine-English actress Anya Taylor-Joy made history at the Golden Globes on Sunday, Feb. 28 when she won the best actress award for a limited series/TV movie for her role as Beth in The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix.The megahit series, which is about orphan Beth Harmon becoming the world’s greatest chess player,  also took home best limited series or TV movie. Taylor-Joy, who has said she identifies as Latina, is the first Latina to win in this category.

“I would do this project again and again and again,” Taylor-Joy said during her speech. “I learned so much and I’m so grateful. Thank you to the audiences that have watched it and supported the characters. It meant the world.”

The 24-year-old actress was born in Miami in 1996, and split her time between Argentina and England, with Spanish being her first language. She is the daughter of an African-Spanish-English mother and a Scottish-Argentinian father and the youngest of six children. She shared with the Golden Globes online last year that she’s waiting for the right Spanish-language project to come along and dreams to work with Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro.

“I haven’t had much time to figure it out. I am just waiting for the right project. It needs to be something special because it’s a very special part of my life, it’s a very special part of my soul. Spanish is my first language. But while I am very good at accents in English because I mimic a lot, in Spanish I have a very thick Argentine accent. So I wonder how difficult it would be when I will speak Spanish. But I am up for the challenge.”

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The awards ceremony featured another first when Chloé Zhao won for best director for the drama film, Nomadland, making her the first Asian woman ever to win that prize, the New York Times reported. Zhao also became the first woman to be named best director since Barbra Streisand won for Yentl nearly 40 years ago. It was the first time in Golden Globes history that three women had been nominated in the category., according to The Times.

Latinx representation at the Golden Globes was scarce despite Taylor-Joy’s historic win. Playwright, actor, and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his portrayal of Alexander Hamilton in the film version of his hit Broadway musical Hamilton. He lost to Sacha Baron Cohen’s revival of Borat Sagdiyev in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Horror film La Llorona from Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante made history as the first Guatemalan film and first film from Central America to be nominated. It lost to Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari.

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