Anya Taylor-Joy

Anya Taylor-Joy plays Beth Harmon in The Queen's Gambit. The performance depends on much more than looking convincing across a chessboard. Beth's concentration can be formidable, but Taylor-Joy also gives her impatience, curiosity and an awkwardness that does not disappear when she starts attracting attention.

Her breakthrough film role was Thomasin in Robert Eggers's The Witch. She went on to play Casey Cooke in Split and Glass, and Lily in Thoroughbreds. Those early films made good use of her ability to hold an expression without immediately explaining what a character is thinking.

The title role in Emma gives her a different setting for confidence and misjudgment. In Last Night in Soho she plays Sandie; in The Menu she plays Margot. She returned to work with Eggers in The Northman and later took the lead in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. These are very different productions, but they repeatedly place her character under close scrutiny, asking the audience to notice a reaction before it is put into words.

Her television work includes Gina Gray in Peaky Blinders. The Queen's Gambit gives her a much larger stretch of a character's life to hold together. Clothing and surroundings change, while Beth's way of attending to the board remains recognisable.

Taylor-Joy is particularly well suited to a story in which being observed matters. Across a tournament table, a small reaction can reveal confidence or uncertainty; away from it, the same face can be much harder for other people to read. That difference is one of the pleasures of watching her as Beth.