But Taylor-Joy, 23, came to the part animated, she said in an interview, by Austen’s own description of Emma as “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” She is perhaps best known for portraying people in extremis: the possibly possessed 17th-century farmer’s daughter in “The Witch” (2016) and one of the girls trapped in the basement by the psychopathic James McAvoy in M. Night Shyamalan’s horror movie “Split” (2017).

She plays Emma with style and attitude and sharpness, as if the character has stepped out of a Regency England version of “Mean Girls.” If every era gets its own “Emma,” perhaps the time is right for one whose job is not always to please the audience.

“I was really sick of women having to be not just likable, but also easy to like,” Taylor-Joy said. “Whenever she had a bad moment, I wanted it to be a moment in which people would see her behaving badly.”

In the film, Taylor-Joy wears true-to-the-period gowns that are not always flattering (one has a neckline so high that it appears to be choking her). Meanwhile, her hair is corralled into tight curls on either side of her face, à la Nellie in “Little House on the Prairie” and when she is displeased, she can look as if she’s sucking on a lemon drop. The film emphasizes Taylor-Joy’s striking, almost otherworldly appearance but at times plays down her natural physical appeal in the service of her character’s haughtiness.