Anya Taylor-Joy Says She Loves "Deep, Dark Techno"

A 200-Person Techno Party on Two Days' Notice

Anya Taylor-Joy threw herself a 30th birthday party in Los Angeles with 200 guests, organized in just two days. The Wednesday event, which she named Spectral Spring, featured friends on the DJ decks playing what she described as "pretty intense techno." Guests wore long white dresses or suits and flower crowns, creating what Taylor-Joy wanted to look "a bit culty." She danced until 1:30 the following afternoon, slept for two hours, then left for Coachella before packing a bag and driving across the country.

From Ballet to the Rave Floor

The Queen's Gambit star told ELLE that she trained in ballet before trading pointe for raving at 15, seeking something less controlled. "That's a pretty good split of my personality, to be honest," Taylor-Joy said. "Ballet class and deep, dark techno."

Her connection to electronic music extends back to her role in the music video for Skrillex's remix of GTA's Red Lips, where she played a woman fighting off demonic figures roughly half a decade before The Queen's Gambit premiered in 2020.

Berlin's Rave Culture as a Creative Reset

Taylor-Joy lived in Berlin for six months while shooting the Netflix miniseries, later crediting the city's rave culture as the driving force behind what she called the healthiest period of her life. In an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, she explained her routine: "In Berlin, it doesn't have to be unhealthy. So my version of it, which I genuinely think was the healthiest I have ever been, was I would wake up on a Sunday, I'd have brunch, I would go to the club, I would dance for about eight hours, not talk to anybody, go home, eat a bowl of spaghetti, and wake up at four o'clock in the morning and go to work."

The Emmy-nominated actress became a household name in 2020 for her role as Beth Harmon in the hit series.