Teyana Taylor says ‘it’s no time to be shy’ when working with Leonardo DiCaprio
By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Actress Teyana Taylor has said “it’s no time to be shy” when working with Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another.
The 34-year-old, who plays Perfidia Beverly Hills, the mother to DiCaprio’s character Bob Ferguson’s child Willa (Chase Infiniti) in the film, told the PA news agency the 50-year-old actor was an “icon”.
Speaking at the film’s London premiere in a blustery Leicester Square, she told PA: “When you’re working with a legend and an icon (DiCaprio), it’s no time to be shocked, that’s not what we here for.
“It’s almost like… before you go into a game, you know what I’m saying, but when that whistle blow, it’s time, you nervous about to run track, that gun go off, you out of there, and that’s what it feels like for me.
“So it’s like, whatever nervousness I got going on, I’ll leave it all, action, it’s game time, because it’s going to cost you to be here, it’s time and money, and crew, and you want to make sure that you’re showing up for your cast and your troops.
“You want to make sure you showed up for your DPs and your director, you want to make sure you’re showing up for everybody, because it really takes a village.
“So you sitting around, stumbling, you wasting everybody’s time and all of our families, and we have these long, 12-hour days, and people just want to get home.
“So for me, I’m a warrior, and I’m about just getting my job done, and doing it the best I can do.”
The film follows a group of ex-revolutionaries who reunite to save the daughter of one of their own after their old enemy resurfaces.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film is the first for Infiniti, who plays Willa, who said working alongside DiCaprio and fellow stars Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro was a “wonderful lesson” and a “masterclass”.
She told PA: “I’m so grateful for the opportunity, and even getting to work with Paul Thomas Anderson, in itself, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it was something I didn’t take lightly.
“I wanted to make sure that I showed up for my scene partners, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro and all of them, because they’re giants in the industry.
“And I wanted to make sure that I was holding my own and doing justice by Paul and his writing, and by Willa more than anything.”
One Battle After Another will be released in cinemas on September 26th.