Anya Taylor-Joy Says Husband Malcolm McRae ‘Accidentally’ Proposed to Her on the Forrest Gump Bench

Letterboxd posted a clip on Instagram of an interview with the Queen’s Gambit star, 28, promoting her recent film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga with her costar Chris Hemsworth on Saturday, July 6 — which is the 30th anniversary of the release date of the classic film starring Tom Hanks as the titular character.

In the clip, Hemsworth, 40, asked Taylor-Joy if something “special” in her life happened on the iconic bench from the movie.

“Yes, my husband accidentally proposed to me on the Forrest Gump bench in Savannah,” she replied, adding that it was a “complete accident.”

“And he’s a boy from Alabama and I’m blonde so…it just happened,” the Dune: Part Two star continued. “I hear that music and I cry like a baby.”

Letterboxd captioned the post, “Thinking about Anya Taylor-Joy’s wedding proposal today 💍.”

The British-American actor secretly married musician Malcolm McRae in New Orleans in April 2022 before the couple celebrated a second wedding in Venice, Italy, in October 2023.

McRae, 30, and Taylor-Joy — who share an April 16 birthday — regularly post about each other on social media, but the connection between their proposal and Forrest Gump wasn’t previously known.

The bench in the 1994 film — which starred Sally Field as Forrest’s mother and Robin Wright as his love interest — served a pivotal role in the film, directed by Robert Zemeckis. Most of the story is told in flashbacks, with Forrest recounting his life story to strangers he meets on the bench while waiting for a bus.

It’s unlikely, however, that McRae proposed to Taylor-Joy on the very same bench that Hanks sat on during filming. That bench now lives at the Savannah History Museum in Georgia.

The couple likely got engaged on a similar bench at the Chippewa Square Bus Stop in Savannah, where the scenes were shot.

PEOPLE