Anya Taylor-Joy says Harry Potter books and plants were her friends

Anya Taylor-Joy says ‘Harry Potter’ characters and plants were her friends when she moved to London.

The ‘Queen’s Gambit’ actress – who was born in Florida and moved to Buenos-Aires when she was a baby before moving to London when she was six years old – has opened up on the impact of the big life change at such an early age.

She told Elle magazine: “I joke about this, but I’m kind of serious when I say that the characters in the ‘Harry Potter’ books were my friends.

“I spent the first two years in England playing hand-clap games with plants — if you slap them hard enough, they clap back — and learning how to read.

“That was my existence. I didn’t hang out with other kids. I was clearly a very normal child.”

Although Anya, now 25, loved learning at school, she had to deal with bullies and ended up leaving at 16.

Although she has opened up on the experiences before – including being trapped in lockers – she doesn’t want to discuss them at the moment.

She explained: “Not because it’s traumatising, but just because I don’t want to give it the airtime.”

However, she did admit she found a need for acting to cope with the bullying, and compared it to the way her ‘Queen’s Gambit’ character Beth Harmon “needed chess”.

She added: “It just really pushed me. Much the same way as Beth needed chess, I needed acting.

“I needed to believe in a place where I could be valued and appreciated, and actually have something to contribute rather than constantly feeling like, ‘What is wrong with me, and why do I not fit in?’ ”

Meanwhile, Anya admitted she won’t rule out a second series of the Netflix show, noting she has no idea what director and co-creator Scott Frank wants to do in the future.

She said: “It would be silly of me to go, ‘There’s never going to be a second series,’ and then I’m 40, and Scott’s like, ‘Yo, how do you feel about this? You want to go back?’ ”