Prior to the 2021 Golden Globes, Taylor-Joy had a Gotham Award under her belt and a few critics prizes. The actress took home the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Actor at the 2016 ceremony for her performance in Robert Eggers’ “The Witch.” Despite facing tough competition from the likes of Nicole Kidman (who was in the running for her fifth Golden Globe), Taylor-Joy was widely viewed as the frontrunner given the rave reviews and blockbuster streaming numbers for “The Queen’s Gambit.” Netflix announced in late November the series was seen by 62 million households over its first 28 days of release, making it the streamer’s biggest launch ever for a limited series.
“The Queen’s Gambit” stars Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy who must overcome addiction struggles in order to become the top chess player in the world. In an interview with IndieWire earlier this year, Taylor-Joy said the script for “The Queen’s Gambit” immediately resonated with her. “At our core, we are very similar,” Taylor-Joy said about her and Beth Harmon. “And I think from the second I met [Beth], it was a weird pain. It was a pain of, ‘Oh God, this hurts so good. And it hurts so good because I know it’s true. And what you need to learn, I need to learn.’” While Taylor-Joy won Best Actress in the Limited Series category, the door is remaining open for her to return as Beth Harmon in a potential second season of “The Queen’s Gambit.” As the actress told Deadline, “It’s so surreal and very wonderful that people want a second season. We never thought about it, there was no discussion about it. That said, never say ‘never’ in Hollywood. It would be very interesting to see how Beth would be as a mother, now that she’s sober and more cognizant of the demons that pull her down.” With a Golden Globe under her belt, Taylor-Joy next moves on to the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The actress will surely be an Emmys contender later in the year for “The Queen’s Gambit.” The series is now streaming on Netflix. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
