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, became a series of novels in the ’90s, was reinterpreted 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, portrayed 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 says, smiling. I realize in that moment that I’m waiting for her irises to deepen into the shade of vibrant violet I’m so used to seeing on television, but they retain their brown-green warmth. “Yennefer is almost 100 years old, so it falls to me to find the middle ground between being someone who has seen a lot of the world and someone who is figuring things out on the go, simply because the world around her is constantly changing.”
Being uncannily precocious is also one of the reasons Chalotra hasn’t been able to embrace social media with the same giddy eagerness as people her age. With only 38 posts on her feed since she made her debut on Instagram five years ago—including blurry pictures of friends and flora—Chalotra keeps her fame refreshingly sheathed. “I think I just don’t like Instagram,” she blurts out rather matter-of-factly. “I don’t like how social media changes or alters my mind. Self-obsession is an occupational hazard in my career and I’d rather devote that extra time I have to something or someone else. That being said, I understand that that’s the direction we’re headed in and I don’t want to make enemies with social media; I want to befriend it so I can use it in a better way. There are so many opinions I’m not ready to share yet and so many things I need to learn about, so I suppose it does reflect me, but not all of me. Sometimes I might share an intimate photo of my family, but that’s okay because in the moment it feels honest.”
Incidentally, family happens to be the guiding force in Chalotra’s life, both personally and professionally. In season three of The Witcher, with Ciri (the princess of the powerful kingdom of Cintra) being thrown into the mix, the relationship between Yennefer and Geralt progresses beyond their predisposition to constantly one-up each other. “You’ve got family at the heart of it,” the actor reveals. “This season, Yennefer, Geralt, and Ciri will fight more relatable fights. There’s more depth to each character and relationship. Because of Ciri, Yennefer and Geralt will be kinder to each other and compromise a lot more.”
Born to an Indian father and an English mother, Chalotra’s dual heritage gifted her two very different sets of relatives that she loves equally, but having never been to India, she was always more curious about her dad’s side of the family and longed to know more about them. Her wish was granted in 2019, when she traveled to Pathankot in Punjab with her father who was visiting family. She harks back to the memory of stepping out of the airport onto Indian soil: “It completely got me. It was very special to go with my dad,” she beams. “He got to show me Pathankot, where so many of my aunties and cousins still live. They’ve been keeping up-to-date with our lives and we stay abreast of theirs. Even though we’d never met, we became so close so soon. It was everything I had expected Indian culture to be—where your cousins are actually like your siblings.”
Now that she has finally found it, how does she plan on preserving this tether to her homeland? “I’m taking Hindi classes!” Definitely not the response I was expecting, but the actor is poised to surprise me further. “I kid you not, I grew up on Bollywood. It was a way for my dad to show me his culture. There was a song from every cult movie—Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., Kal Ho Naa Ho, Main Hoon Na, Veer-Zaara—that I learned and performed for my family at some point.” Full marks for immaculate pronunciation, I note, as Chalotra waves goodbye and my Zoom screen goes blank, releasing me from the spell of her captivating gaze.