Anya Taylor-Joy hasn't read The Lord of the Rings books yet.

The 30-year-old star is set to feature in the upcoming movie The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum as Seren the elf but confessed that she is yet to read J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels as a result of a "misguided idea" she had growing up.

Speaking to Variety at the premiere of her new Apple TV series Lucky on Monday (13.07.26), Taylor-Joy said: "I'm about to read the books now, actually.

"So as a child, I had a misguided idea that you could only be a Harry Potter fan or a Lord of the Rings fan. Nobody told me that. I just came up with that on my own.

"Luckily, throughout Covid, I then watched all of Lord of the Rings, and turns out you can love both, and you should."

Taylor-Joy's casting in The Hunt for Gollum - which also features returning Lord of the Rings stars Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood as well as franchise newcomers such as Jamie Dornan and Kate Winslet - was announced last month and she hopes that it is a role that can define her career.

The Queen's Gambit actress said: "It's so fun. I mean, if my tombstone can say 'Lethal Elf', I feel like I did a good job on this planet. So yeah, I'm excited."

Meanwhile, Taylor-Joy recently revealed that she was inspired to take up acting because she wanted to "ride" a whale after watching the 1993 movie Free Willy - which tells the story of a young orphan and his friendship with a captive orca.

Discussing what she would have done if she hadn't been an actress, Anya told Extra: "I really wanted to be a made-up job, which was a large animal biologist. I really wanted to work with tigers and orcas, and I needed to find a job that like combined those two mammals together.

"So, I think I'd probably be working in some sort of conservationism or I'd be a travel journalist.

"I wanted to be an actor because I saw Free Willy. I wanted to be the kid that rode the whale."

Taylor-Joy's latest role is in TV series Lucky, in which she plays the titular con artist who goes on the run when a heist goes wrong, and she explained how she wasn't required to do much training for the physical scenes as director Jonathan Van Tulleken wanted to highlight the character's lack of natural athleticism.

The Menu star said: "The director Jonathan Van Tulleken and I talked a lot about kind of trying to do everything as badly as you could so that the audience feels a real sense of risk and they feel like you're really getting by on the skin of your teeth. So, it was fun."