Meet Anya Chalotra, the Indian origin lead actor in Netflix's The Witcher

This piece was originally published in Vogue (India) on 16th December 2019

Dressed in an Oxblood velvet blouse and cranberry-hued satin trousers, Anya Chalotra meets me over a cup of coffee at The Oberoi in Delhi. In December 2019, Netflix will release The Witcher, a cult fantasy drama based on Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski’s titular novels. Teeming with darkness, dread, monsters and magic, the television series is already garnering much attention, being touted as the next Game of Thrones. Starring alongside Henry Cavill (who plays Geralt of Rivia) will be Chalotra, as the magnetic, Yennefer of Vengerberg.

With hair pulled back loosely, Chalotra is disarmingly self-conscious. Yet, there is something effortless about her—a gentleness to her swan-like gestures, a warmth in her almond-hued eyes. The 24-year-old Brit of Indian heritage is visiting India for the first time. And, it is only over the course of our conversation, bookended by her career and her longing to trace her Indian roots, that her spirit truly emerges.

In her television career, so far, Chalotra has appeared in measured glimpses. In Netflix’s Wanderlust (staring Toni Collette), she plays the part of a bookish aloof, who later blooms into a layered character. In BBC’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders (starring John Malkovich), she craftily adopts the role of Lily Marbury. But even in these laconic screen presences, Chalotra’s range as an actor is evident. Trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she has performed in three professional plays. In fact, she enthralled audiences in a Theatre Royal Stratford East production called The Village, which led publications like The Guardian to sit up and take notice.

The Witcher will allow Chalotra to really shine, pitching her right at the centre of an ethereal universe as the enigmatic, raven-haired sorceress, commanding undeniable attention. If all goes well, this role could potentially transform her, in an eye blink, from a television what’s-her-name to a Google phenomenon.

The day we meet, Chalotra makes a frank admission. “I haven’t read all of The Witcher novels.” She’s a slow reader, she reveals. “And that’s only because I am very thorough. I read every detail and often have to go back to the page before and read it again, and I ask questions as I go along, since I am that character.”

She has read the short stories from The Last Wish though, considered to be the first book in the series, which is the content of the first season. However, it was the script (written by producer and showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich) that became her Bible. “I would read it every day, again and again. It allowed me to become more familiar with the way Yennefer would think, breathe and respond to the relationships she had with different characters.”

The Witcher. Courtesy: Netflix

Since its inception, the eight-part literary saga, which was written in the ’90s and later developed into an iconic video-game franchise, has garnered an unfathomable following. When Chalotra walked into the audition room, however, she knew nothing about monster slayers or Yennefer’s legacy. “I walked into this blindly,” she admits with compelling honesty. “And I think that helped me, because had I known of Yennefer being such an iconic character and having a huge fan base, I would’ve overthought every choice I made in that audition room.” Instead, Chalotra allowed her intuition to direct her interpretation of Yennefer, which is probably one of the reasons why, she believes, she got the part. “Every time I auditioned (three times), I became hungrier for the role.”

It’s safe to say that The Witcher novels were originally written with white characters in mind. The selection of Chalotra then, who is an actor of colour and far younger than the fictional Yennefer, didn’t sit too well with the massive, yet doggedly conservative literary fandom. She faced ridicule. Many labelled her as a mere ingénue, incapable of taking on the plum job of portraying a highly complex, fascinating character.

“When I got the part, the fans got a hold of the news pretty quickly,” she recalls. “I started getting a lot of attention, which was both negative and positive.” So, she shut down her social media accounts. “I wanted my journey to be very different. I wanted to allow the character to evolve organically, without any pressure, and I know that the only way to do that was to shut off my social media.”

Chalotra steered clear of Instagram and twitter for all of the eight months of filming. “Obviously, being an actor I am very self-critical and I will always want to serve the fans, but I’ve always tried to focus on the positive, and more importantly, on the story.”

Chalotra discovered her natural flair for showmanship pretty early on in life. She was pushed in front of her relatives by her father when she was a kid. “I think I was eight? We were having a family get together and he told me to sing an Indian song. And I knew, at that very moment, that I loved the attention.”

Born to an Indian father and an English mother, Chalotra has been yearning to visit India for as long as she can remember. Having spent two-and-a-half weeks in the country now, she has already been on a characteristically-delayed seven-hour train journey, witnessed the beauty of Amritsar’s Golden Temple, and convinced herself to take Hindi lessons once back in London. But before that, she has a string of panel discussions and interviews she must attend to. “Yennefer has changed my life. This opportunity has changed my life. It has been an absolute gift,” she says knocking on wood.

While The Witcher fans may write her off as a young actor with minimal professional experience, Chalotra’s career trajectory could markedly resemble Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke’s, who started off with very little herself, and made history.

The Witcher is slated to release on December 20 on Netflix.