Anya Taylor-Joy Opens Up About the Bittersweet ‘Lucky’ Finale and Why ‘Dune 3’ Surpassed All Her Expectations

Anya Taylor-Joy is looking back on two very different projects that pushed her in completely different ways. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor opened up about the emotional ending of Apple TV’s Lucky and the experience of working on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three.

Lucky wrapped its story with Taylor-Joy’s character, Lucky, finally breaking away from the life of crime she was raised in. After losing her husband Cary and facing the reality that her father John may never change, Lucky makes a choice that gives her a chance at a completely different future.

Rather than keeping the $10 million that has been passed around throughout the series, Lucky returns the stolen money to the federal government. She also walks away from her father and the criminal world that shaped her.

For Taylor-Joy, that ending was painful but also hopeful. She explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the story connects with something many people experience in their own lives: loving someone who is ultimately bad for you.

“Either personally or through somebody close to us, we all know what it is to love somebody that’s not good for us,” Taylor-Joy said. “It’s a lesson that has to be learned individually.”

That lesson is especially important for Lucky because so much of her identity has been shaped by her father. John raised her to become a skilled con artist, and for much of her life, earning his approval meant becoming better at the very thing she eventually wanted to escape.

Taylor-Joy said that was part of what made the final moments so emotional. Even though Lucky knows she needs to leave John behind, there is still a part of her that wants him to make the right choice.

“You still feel that heartbreak because Timothy is so charming, and you so want him to do the right thing,” she explained. But the ending gives Lucky something she has never really had before. “Where we leave Lucky, she, for the first time, isn’t being told who she is; she’s telling other people who she is.”

Taylor-Joy also sees Lucky as fortunate in a much deeper sense. She may end the series alone, but she has survived everything that was thrown at her and finally has the ability to decide what happens next.

“Anytime you have the opportunity to make your own fate, you’re pretty lucky,” she said. “And she made it out alive.”

While Lucky gave Taylor-Joy an emotionally complicated character to explore, Dune: Part Three gave her a completely different kind of experience. The actor returns as Alia Atreides in the third installment of Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic, and she says the production exceeded what she had hoped for.

“Dune: Part Three was everything that I hoped it would be,” Taylor-Joy told The Hollywood Reporter.

Taylor-Joy had already appeared briefly as Alia in Dune: Part Two, but her role is expected to be much more significant in the third film. She said she approached the production by trying to absorb as much as possible from Villeneuve and the filmmaking process.

“I just wanted to be a sponge on that set and pick up everything in terms of the atmosphere and what it is to lead from a place of love,” she said.

The actor was particularly impressed by the atmosphere Villeneuve created on set. Even while working in difficult conditions, she said the cast and crew were giving their best because they trusted and respected their director.

“It was so deeply inspiring to be in these really harsh elements and know that every person is doing their absolute best work because they believe, trust and adore the person that’s leading the ship,” Taylor-Joy said.

That experience also reminded her why she loves acting. Taylor-Joy said she hopes she never loses the excitement she had when she was younger and still approaches filmmaking with the same curiosity.

“When I think about myself in the future, I hope that I never get jaded and that I still have that childlike exuberance,” she said. “So when I look at Denis, I’m like, Oh, it’s possible.”

For Taylor-Joy, then, Lucky and Dune: Part Three seem to have offered two very different lessons. One was about letting go of people who hold you back, while the other reminded her why she still loves creating stories in the first place.

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