{"id":11297,"date":"2026-02-13T01:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/11297\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T01:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:28:10","slug":"bella-ramsey-interview-on-sunny-dancer-film-berlin-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/11297\/","title":{"rendered":"Bella Ramsey Interview on ‘Sunny Dancer’ Film: Berlin 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Bella Ramsey<\/a> was circling a film about kids at a summer camp, decidedly weary from being \u201cin big shows with so much attention on them,\u201d they were anticipating a whole lot of cringe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe email came through, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m gonna hate this,\u2019\u202f\u201d the British star admits to\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter. They had a terrible premonition that George Jaques\u2019 sophomore feature \u2014 which follows Ivy, a young girl in remission from leukemia who is coaxed into attending \u201cchemo camp\u201d by her parents \u2014 was going to be all cheese and no substance: In their words, \u201cA recipe for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut \u201cit was honestly probably the best six weeks of my life so far,\u201d they continue to\u00a0THR\u00a0about the making of\u00a0Sunny Dancer\u00a0ahead of its world premiere in Berlin. As they came to understand Jaques\u2019 vision for the film, Ramsey\u2019s 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\u2019d never had.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was finding myself,\u201d Ramsey says about playing Ivy, whose traumatic health journey has tainted her burgeoning worldview. \u201c[It was] a real personal journey of me experiencing teenage years I never got to experience because I was working since I was 11.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf 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\u00a0Game of Thrones\u00a0and later as zombie hunter Ellie in HBO\u2019s adaptation of the popular video game\u00a0The Last of Us. It\u2019s 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\u00a0Sunny Dancer\u00a0in the Scottish springtime.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie\u2019s already landed a distribution partner in Embankment Films thanks to a wealth of global talent. Alongside Ramsey is\u00a0Baby Reindeer\u00a0star Jessica Gunning as Ivy\u2019s mother, Karen;\u00a0Happy Valley\u2019s James Norton as Ivy\u2019s father, Bob; and Neil Patrick Harris as the camp counselor. Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Jasmine Elcock and Conrad Khan play Ivy\u2019s fellow cancer survivors, whom Ramsey simultaneously grew to adore.<\/p>\n

\n\tRamsey spoke to\u00a0THR\u00a0about their big-show burnout, why playing Ivy was weirdly the most normal character they\u2019ve tackled in years and coming away feeling wholly committed to British independent film.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid George Jaques have you in mind for the role of Ivy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t know George. The amazing casting director, Daniel Edwards, kept saying my name to George, but I\u2019d 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\u00a0The Last of Us\u00a0season two in Canada.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt first, the email came through and I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m gonna hate this. It\u2019s about kids at camp. That\u2019s just not my vibe.\u201d Then I read it and watched the sizzle reel and it was nothing that I hoped it wouldn\u2019t be. Does that make sense? Everything that I was worried about,\u00a0Sunny Dancer\u00a0flipped it on its head. A film about kids with cancer at summer camp? I was like, \u201cThis is a recipe for disaster.\u201d And it was just the opposite. The way George wrote it, the feeling he was expressing through it, was just so exciting and infectious.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere you worried it was going to be too depressing?<\/p>\n

\n\tI 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. \u2026 And then, I don\u2019t know whether the world will ever see this sizzle reel \u2014 I hope so \u2014 but the first 20 seconds is the cheesy summer camp, generic graphics, the cheesiest music I\u2019ve ever heard, then there\u2019s a DJ\u202fscratch, and it goes, \u201cFuck this.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0Sunny Dancer\u00a0energy from there onwards. It\u2019s just so genius, George\u2019s vision for it, and the way that it has carried through from script to the final product.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you see yourself in Ivy?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBella Ramsey in \u2018The Last of Us\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of HBO<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you guys wash away the heaviness of the subject matter at the end of the day?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe 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\u2019s not very common. Normally it\u2019s like, exclusive car transport \u2014 which is kind of stupid, to be honest \u2014 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\u2019ve 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\u2019t stop when we got off set.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeil Patrick Harris was another great cast addition. How was having his American presence on set?<\/p>\n

\n\tNeil 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\u2019t know what [he] would be like, but because he\u2019s Neil Patrick Harris, he\u2019s really cool. He just came in and was a nerd with all of us. We\u2019d play games together at lunch, and he\u2019d 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. \u2026 It was all the more emotional, because of how silly and funny he is. The ability to do both is insane.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m thinking that between\u00a0Game of Thrones\u00a0and\u00a0The Last of Us, Ivy weirdly feels like the most normal role you\u2019ve played in ages.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes! It was actually scarier. I was so terrified to play Ivy \u2014 way more than I was to play Ellie in\u00a0The Last of Us\u00a0\u2014 because the world of something like\u00a0The Last of Us\u00a0is so \u2026 how do I describe it? Ivy is just a normal person in the normal world we all live in, right? [With] Ellie, it\u2019s postapocalypse. You\u2019re so grounded in the world. And it\u2019s got such character around it and in the landscape. But Ivy felt so scary because I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m just playing a normal person.\u201d A normal person who has experienced a very difficult thing, but that\u2019s also fairly common and so important to portray sensitively.<\/p>\n

\n\tI definitely was so scared to play her because of how \u201ceasy\u201d it was on paper. I\u2019m like, \u201cOh this is an easy part to play for me because she\u2019s normal and fun and emotional and a teenager.\u201d But that was actually what scared me about it. There isn\u2019t a world to mask anything or to hide behind. It\u2019s 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\u2019s a magician.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you find that playing Ivy was weirdly cathartic?<\/p>\n

\n\tDefinitely. 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\u00a0Sunny Dancer. And that therapy week actually was so helpful because I was also going through my own therapy.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEarl Cave, Conrad Khan, Bella Ramsey, Ruby Stokes, Jasmine Elcock and Daniel Quinn-Toye in \u2018Sunny Dancer.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBerlinale<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve been in the industry for such a long time already, but you\u2019re also still so young. How does\u00a0Sunny Dancer\u00a0capture what piques your interest at the moment? What roles get you excited?<\/p>\n

\n\tHonestly? British independent film. After being on\u00a0Sunny Dancer, I was like, \u201cThis is how you make a film.\u201d With whatever budget, whatever scale. The experience of making it was so kind and generous and supportive. Film is really what I\u2019m interested in. I really love films with heart and feeling. \u2026 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m really steering away from \u2026 I mean, things like\u00a0The Last of Us\u00a0and\u00a0Game 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\u2019m 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\u2019t care. That\u2019s how I\u2019ve always done it in my career. When I was a child, my interest was always about whether I like the story, and that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tHave you been to Berlin before?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I haven\u2019t. I\u2019ve not been to many film festivals, to be honest. I definitely feel like a newbie to festivals. I did the Toronto Film Festival. \u2026 But I\u2019m excited to be there with a couple of the other people that are going, which is even more exciting. I just think it\u2019ll be really fun to go with this gang and George. George\u2019s No.\u202f1 priority for all of us at all times is just to have the most fun possible. I think that\u2019s definitely going to extend to Berlin.<\/p>\n

\n\tWrap up warm \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tI think I\u2019m going to be in a sleeveless tank top thing. So that\u2019s not going to be good for minus seven, is it?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Bella Ramsey was circling a film about kids at a summer camp, decidedly weary from being \u201cin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[8360,112,760,3146,190,762,294],"class_list":{"0":"post-11297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-bella-ramsey","9":"tag-berlin","10":"tag-berlin-2026","11":"tag-berlin-film-festival","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}