When Bella Ramsey was circling a film about kids at a summer camp, decidedly weary from being “in big shows with so much attention on them,” they were anticipating a whole lot of cringe.
“The email came through, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna hate this,’ ” the British star admits to The Hollywood Reporter. They had a terrible premonition that George Jaques’ sophomore feature — which follows Ivy, a young girl in remission from leukemia who is coaxed into attending “chemo camp” by her parents — was going to be all cheese and no substance: In their words, “A recipe for disaster.”
But “it was honestly probably the best six weeks of my life so far,” they continue to THR about the making of Sunny Dancer ahead of its world premiere in Berlin. As they came to understand Jaques’ vision for the film, Ramsey’s fears were quashed. Not only did they come out with a tender coming-of-age movie where, as the filmmaker puts it, cancer is the least interesting thing about this group of nearly young adults, but the 22-year-old lead was gifted the teen experience they’d never had.
“I was finding myself,” Ramsey says about playing Ivy, whose traumatic health journey has tainted her burgeoning worldview. “[It was] a real personal journey of me experiencing teenage years I never got to experience because I was working since I was 11.”
Of course, Ramsey quite literally grew up in front of the camera. They are best known for their roles as the headstrong Lady Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones and later as zombie hunter Ellie in HBO’s adaptation of the popular video game The Last of Us. It’s a launchpad that the young actor is eternally grateful for, but it did leave them gasping for air a little when it came to shooting Sunny Dancer in the Scottish springtime.
The movie’s already landed a distribution partner in Embankment Films thanks to a wealth of global talent. Alongside Ramsey is Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning as Ivy’s mother, Karen; Happy Valley’s James Norton as Ivy’s father, Bob; and Neil Patrick Harris as the camp counselor. Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Jasmine Elcock and Conrad Khan play Ivy’s fellow cancer survivors, whom Ramsey simultaneously grew to adore.
Ramsey spoke to THR about their big-show burnout, why playing Ivy was weirdly the most normal character they’ve tackled in years and coming away feeling wholly committed to British independent film.
Did George Jaques have you in mind for the role of Ivy?
I didn’t know George. The amazing casting director, Daniel Edwards, kept saying my name to George, but I’d also never met Daniel. So I feel very fortunate that I was even thought of for this and for Ivy. Then they got in touch, George wrote me a letter, and I did a Zoom while I was filming The Last of Us season two in Canada.
At first, the email came through and I’m like, “Oh, I’m gonna hate this. It’s about kids at camp. That’s just not my vibe.” Then I read it and watched the sizzle reel and it was nothing that I hoped it wouldn’t be. Does that make sense? Everything that I was worried about, Sunny Dancer flipped it on its head. A film about kids with cancer at summer camp? I was like, “This is a recipe for disaster.” And it was just the opposite. The way George wrote it, the feeling he was expressing through it, was just so exciting and infectious.
Were you worried it was going to be too depressing?
I was worried that it was going to go either way: Too depressing or too cringe. I really thought that it would be either one of those things. When I saw the email, I thought more that [it] was going to be cringy. … And then, I don’t know whether the world will ever see this sizzle reel — I hope so — but the first 20 seconds is the cheesy summer camp, generic graphics, the cheesiest music I’ve ever heard, then there’s a DJ scratch, and it goes, “Fuck this.” It’s Sunny Dancer energy from there onwards. It’s just so genius, George’s vision for it, and the way that it has carried through from script to the final product.
Did you see yourself in Ivy?
Yes, George and I had a back-and-forth conversation. It was always a conversation about Ivy and who she was. What George did with all of us six young castmembers was we had a whole fact sheet of information where we went through together and discussed making these characters feel full and real and alive — their cancer journeys and how that has affected them as human beings. And outside of cancer, what they like as human beings, what they listen to, what they do at school, what their friendships are like. But even then, it was never like the character was set in stone. I feel like I was finding Ivy through the filming process, which is actually kind of poetic because Ivy is finding herself. There was definitely a little parallel going on there, where I was also finding myself. A three-way parallel. Does that work? A real personal journey of me experiencing teenage years I never got to experience because I was working since I was 11. It was a magical combination.
How did you guys wash away the heaviness of the subject matter at the end of the day?
We were having such a good time. Even on the heavy days, the set was never heavy. The scenes that were darker, all that would happen is the set would go quieter. But we were still having a good time. But really, the way that we washed off the days was with the car rides home. We all shared a minivan home at the end of the day, and it was something that George pushed really hard to get in our contracts. It’s not very common. Normally it’s like, exclusive car transport — which is kind of stupid, to be honest — but, yeah, George really pushed hard for that not to be the case for anybody. It meant that we got these car rides home in which we would either just sit together in silence because we were tired [or] most of the time we would be playing music, drinking beers. One of the drivers kept supplying us with beer. (Laughs.) I’ve got so many videos of us just being twats in the back of the car on the rides home, which was so fun. The camp vibe didn’t stop when we got off set.
Neil Patrick Harris was another great cast addition. How was having his American presence on set?
Neil fit in so well. No one ever stuck out or was on the edge or was slightly outcast. Everyone was so aligned and so in it together, and Neil included. We didn’t know what [he] would be like, but because he’s Neil Patrick Harris, he’s really cool. He just came in and was a nerd with all of us. We’d play games together at lunch, and he’d be in the corner doing puzzles. He was an incredible addition and really breathed a different energy of life into CRF camp. Also, because his comedic timing is so genius, it was like watching a comedy master class. Then when he breaks and there are those emotional scenes. … It was all the more emotional, because of how silly and funny he is. The ability to do both is insane.
I’m thinking that between Game of Thrones and The Last of Us, Ivy weirdly feels like the most normal role you’ve played in ages.
Yes! It was actually scarier. I was so terrified to play Ivy — way more than I was to play Ellie in The Last of Us — because the world of something like The Last of Us is so … how do I describe it? Ivy is just a normal person in the normal world we all live in, right? [With] Ellie, it’s postapocalypse. You’re so grounded in the world. And it’s got such character around it and in the landscape. But Ivy felt so scary because I’m like, “Oh, I’m just playing a normal person.” A normal person who has experienced a very difficult thing, but that’s also fairly common and so important to portray sensitively.
I definitely was so scared to play her because of how “easy” it was on paper. I’m like, “Oh this is an easy part to play for me because she’s normal and fun and emotional and a teenager.” But that was actually what scared me about it. There isn’t a world to mask anything or to hide behind. It’s all about Ivy and the journey that she goes on. But George was so good about protecting that and understanding that and grounding you in yourself. He’s a magician.
Did you find that playing Ivy was weirdly cathartic?
Definitely. From the party scenes in the cabin to them being reckless and running and screaming and rushing into a lake in the middle of March, when we were filming. All the therapy scenes where I just basically end up crying, we shot in the first week, and I was coming off the back of just feeling a bit uninspired and a bit exhausted and burnt out from press and being in big shows with so much attention on them. I think I was a bit jaded coming into the filming of Sunny Dancer. And that therapy week actually was so helpful because I was also going through my own therapy.
You’ve been in the industry for such a long time already, but you’re also still so young. How does Sunny Dancer capture what piques your interest at the moment? What roles get you excited?
Honestly? British independent film. After being on Sunny Dancer, I was like, “This is how you make a film.” With whatever budget, whatever scale. The experience of making it was so kind and generous and supportive. Film is really what I’m interested in. I really love films with heart and feeling. … British independent film is honestly the space that I want to exist in for a while. Or European independent film. I just think that it has the space to tell really interesting stories in really interesting ways.
I’m really steering away from … I mean, things like The Last of Us and Game of Thrones. These big things were absolutely incredible experiences, and I feel so lucky to have had them as launchpads into my career. But now I’m in this position where I understand the privilege of being able to choose and to do the projects that interest me, even if they have no budget. I don’t care. That’s how I’ve always done it in my career. When I was a child, my interest was always about whether I like the story, and that’s literally been it from the beginning and continues to be. What interests me now is the same: really human stories that are well-written, that I connect to in some way or that I think are important.
Have you been to Berlin before?
No, I haven’t. I’ve not been to many film festivals, to be honest. I definitely feel like a newbie to festivals. I did the Toronto Film Festival. … But I’m excited to be there with a couple of the other people that are going, which is even more exciting. I just think it’ll be really fun to go with this gang and George. George’s No. 1 priority for all of us at all times is just to have the most fun possible. I think that’s definitely going to extend to Berlin.
Wrap up warm …
I think I’m going to be in a sleeveless tank top thing. So that’s not going to be good for minus seven, is it?
