This Valentine's season, we have been gifted an unusual-yet-compelling romance movie, wrapped up in action thriller trappings. Apple TV+ movie The Gorge – starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller – tells the story of two elite snipers, Drasa and Levi, who guard opposite sides of a huge, mysterious canyon, with no access to the outside world. Isolation gets to the both of them, and they soon begin writing handwritten messages – which they read through binoculars – and other adorable means of analogue communication. It's an unlikely love story, complete with sniper guns.
Chemistry built across a miles-wide gorge is no mean feat, and both Anya and Miles have credited this on-screen connection as forged from a solid offscreen friendship that they have nurtured for many years before working on the film.
Kendrick has assured that Another Simple Favour is just as “dark and f**ked up” as the original.
The movie has also been described as “genre-bending” in the way it explores a sweet – and actually, rather sexy – love story, alongside a darker thriller storyline, where the two lovers must encounter what really lies within the gorge they've been protecting.
Anya's character Drasa is an action hero for the ages, with sniper skills and the physical abilities to fight the (don't worry, no spoilers) evil lying in the gorge herself and Miles' character Levi have been enlisted to protect. But what empowers Anya in her own life? Her answer, she tells GLAMOUR, is simple.
“Knowing that you're supported,” she says. “I think when you have people around you that back your cause and believe in you, that feels good. You feel more solid.”
On top of a career that's seen her play a chess genius (The Queen's Gambit), a scheming gangsters wife (Peaky Blinders) and a younger version of Charlize Theron's Mad Max legend Furiosa, has also become a style icon outside of her movie roles – most recently modelling for Tiffany and Dior in Paris.
“Honestly, it's just really fun because when I was a kid I had no concept of fashion,” she tells GLAMOUR of what fashion means to her. "It was never something that I knew anything about or was necessarily that interested in. And so throughout this career, I am now a die-hard fashion lover and it's such a big part of the way that I look at the world, and it's just a new art form that I get to enjoy. I just feel grateful to be a fan of something. It's just wonderful to love something.”
Anya and Miles sat down with GLAMOUR to take our Bestie Test, covering who's more likely to ignore a WhatsApp, karaoke song choices and what they learned from each other and the ways that they supported each other on set.
GLAMOUR: Who do you think would make the best assassin or action hero out of the two of you?
Anya: I see those as two different things…
Miles: She's the better assassin.
Anya: I'm a better assassin, and you're a better action hero… I love how we immediately got into that.
Miles: She's got assassin vibes to her.
Anya: For stealth, c'est moi. For brawn, c'est toi.
GLAMOUR: Anya, is Miles an extrovert or introvert?
Anya: I think you're an extroverted introvert. I think you present as an extrovert, but in reality you're an introvert.
Miles: That's true, yeah.
GLAMOUR: Miles, Anya's character challenges yours to a dance-off in the film… Who would win a dance-off out of the two of you?
Miles: I guess it really would just come down to who's the most hydrated…
Anya: I don't see him keeping up.
Miles: I see us really just giving it everything we can until we die.
Anya: He's not wrong.
GLAMOUR: To the death.
Anya: Yeah. To the death.
Miles: Dance to the death.
GLAMOUR: Anya, what would Miles's karaoke song of choice be?
Anya: It depends if he's being silly or not. If he's being silly, then he might do Whitney Houston or really go all out. But if you're being serious, it's either a country song or Johnny Cash.
Miles: It's kind of a trick question because I do play instruments. And I like playing and singing in small groups, but I hate karaoke.
Anya: Yeah.
Miles: I truly hate karaoke.
Anya: Yeah, I can understand. I have no desire actually.
Miles: I just don't, I mean, I get it, but I just can't do it.
Anya: It is weird. But don't you think it checks out that we would both be into it and I feel the exact same way. I have no desire to do that.
Miles: In Korea, I enjoyed karaoke over there.
Anya: I think that's very specific.
Miles: But karaoke is a big part of the culture.
Anya: Yeah. I may sing in Korea.
GLAMOUR: Miles, what surprised you the most about Anya while working together on set?
Miles: I think just her ability to compartmentalise. [We were] friends coming into this, but when you're on set and you're really going through this experience together 14 hours a day for five months, you really get to know someone if they're open to it. And so Anya and I's relationship really just kind of deepened a lot through this process. And I'm just always fascinated how she can go from talking about something arbitrary to then as soon as the camera's on, her just eyes re-shift and she's completely that character. So I loved watching that process.
Anya: That slight psychosis?
Miles: That slight psychosis. Not too much, but a little.
Anya: Just a little bit. Just a little touch of crazy.
Miles: You need a little bit of psychosis. Yeah. Just a little touch of cray.
GLAMOUR: Your characters’ relationship is built from a physical distance across the gorge, how did you prepare that chemistry, did you rehearse from different rooms?
Anya: We tried really hard to be there for each other. All throughout rehearsals. It was like, if I am off-screen, I will be there every day. We're going to make this work. We want to do that for each other.
Miles: No matter what.
Anya: No matter what, honey, I will be there. The first day that they started shooting Miles, they put me on a lift [pulley], far far away…
Miles: 40 feet high, yeah.
Anya: And I was there with my pad and my pen.
Miles: Technically, it didn't make sense and it was actually distracting!
GLAMOUR: In The Gorge, both your characters have to survive without phone service or Wi-Fi. Who would survive better out of the two of you with that kind of isolation do you think?
Anya: Again, I'm not good with my phone, so I think I would be okay. I'm a reader. I read a lot. I'd be good in terms of that, but I also think that you [Miles] could leave it. I don't think either of us is very online.
Miles: The only thing I would want updates on are like Philadelphia sports teams. Other than that, it'd be great if I could have music.
Anya: A carrier pigeon would come every week and give you the news.
Miles: As far as being on the phone I actually [have] made a lifestyle change with it…
Anya: Cultivating attention versus distraction.
Miles: The dead space… I'm really trying to cut that. Just get some free thinking. I've always found it to be very beneficial… I enjoy those moments.
GLAMOUR: Who would be the most likely to ignore a WhatsApp or leave someone on read, out of the two of you. Who's more stealthy with their phone?
Anya: I'm not stealthy.
Miles: Stealthy is a nice way to talk about not responding… Anya will not respond to a text for like… I literally had one in my phone the other day. I asked her, "Hey, just checking in. How are you doing?" And it was like a month later. She's like, "Oh, I'm good." I'm like, “Oh, cool. Were you good a month ago?”
Anya: Here's the thing. I'm just bad with my phone. I'm an in-person person. If you are in front of me, I give you 110%, and I'm just not that good [on my phone]. But I'm always thinking of you.
Miles: Oh my gosh…
Anya: I'm blushing!
GLAMOUR: Let's take the heat off Anya. Miles, who would be Anya's choice of actor to play her in her biopic?
Miles: Oh my gosh.
Anya: I can't help you there.
Miles: I think Cate Blanchett could perform the hell out of anyone. And I think you would be happy with that.
Anya: Oh my God, she'd have played Bob Dylan [in the 2007 film I'm Not There] and me.
Miles: Amazing.
Anya: Quite the range.
Miles: Nice answer.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
The Gorge is available to watch now on Apple TV+.
