Call it magic

Playing the beautiful, mysterious mage Yennefer on The Witcher may have earned Anya Chalotra the kind of fame most women her age can only dream of, but the one thing the young actor prizes above all else is family. 

- SADAF SHAIKH

Yennefer of Vengerberg is a name that needs no introduction for fans of The Witcher, which started as a short-story submission for a Polish magazine in 1986, received a multi-book narration throughout the '90s, got interpreted as a video game in 2007 and spawned various comic book iterations in the last decade before finally being adapted as a TV series for Netflix in 2019. And yet, for the grand scale on which the fantasy drama is produced (and the fact that she plays a pivotal character opposite the eponymous Witcher, Geralt, essayed by none other than Henry Cavill), Anya Chalotra is a relative newbie on the scene. But where others might have floundered under the weight of the legacy attached to the role, the 26-year-old rose to the challenge, smoothly eliding the years between herself and the ancient sorceress she plays. Looking at her on Zoom, dressed in a plain white shirt, hair pulled back into a messy bun, face devoid of any trace of makeup-as far removed from the glamorous, power-hungry mage she plays on the show as she possibly can be-I wonder if it is the slick confidence of a younger millennial. Chalotra, instead, chalks it up to being an old soul. "Since I was a kid, I've always connected better with the adults in my family. I would really enjoy listening to stories my grandparents narrated. I'd just sit there and take it all in," she smiles, wide-eyed. I realise in that moment that I'm waiting for her irises to deepen into the shade of vibrant violet I'm so used to see