Bella Ramsey. Photo: Charlotte Hadden
Bella Ramsey is no stranger to death. As the young Lady Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, a role they landed aged just 11, they went out in a scene-stealing blaze of glory, taking out a zombified giant on the way. As survivor Ellie in The Last of Us, they lost more loved ones than they killed "infected" creatures in a world ravaged by a fungal pandemic. Even in the recent children's comedy The Sheep Detectives, they voiced an animated sheep from a flock who were on a mission to solve the murder of their dearly departed shepherd.
Fitting characters for an actor who has ruminated over the fragility of mortality ever since they were a child growing up in the Midlands. "When I was young, I was walking through a field, and this phrase popped into my head," Ramsey recalls over a video call: "To savour life, you must shake hands with death."
It's a weighty expression for a kid but one that has stayed with the now-22-year-old through a Bafta win and countless other award-nominated performances, resonating especially while shooting their latest film, the must-see indie drama Sunny Dancer. The second feature from British actor and filmmaker George Jaques, the coming-of-age tale follows the raucous highs and lows of teen cancer survivors at a sleepaway camp. As 17-year-old Ivy, who has been in remission from leukaemia for 10 months, Ramsey relished the chance to tackle the subject of life and death in a less "hardcore" fashion: "Getting to be in Scotland with a bunch of young people the same age, at summer camp for six weeks, while telling a story with real heart and emotional weight, was so much fun."
I have such a fondness for films that are set at summer camps. Were there any that you watched to prepare you for Sunny Dancer?
No, but the director did tell me to watch Juno. There was a similar feeling of joy, humour, and being young within quite difficult circumstances.
I was reminded of the films Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Babyteeth because Sunny Dancer has a bit of rebelliousness for a cancer-based coming-of-age story. Was that what excited you about the project?
Yes. There aren't any shaved heads. There's no hospital or long-drawn-out death scenes. Cancer is an important part but it's way more about these young people experiencing being teenagers for the first time – and life without there being this elephant in the room.
Bella Ramsey (centre, in striped top) as Ivy in Sunny Dancer. Photo: Colin J Smith
Your character, Ivy, just wants to feel normal. As someone who might not have had the typical teenage experience, growing up in the public eye while dealing with mental health struggles, was that something you could resonate with?
Absolutely. I'm always careful answering this question because my experiences can't compare to having cancer, but there are similarities in terms of Ivy staying the same and everyone around her getting weird. That's how I felt being in the industry from a young age. Suddenly people around you start treading on eggshells because they worry that you're famous now so you're going to be different and weird. I always found that uncomfortable. I didn't get to be a teenager in the way that other people do it so both Ivy's journey and mine was abnormal.
After making your name in TV shows where you're often the youngest person on the call sheet, was it fun to shoot something with actors your own age?
Yeah! I thought I would feel a bit on the outside and wouldn't fit in with this cool group of young people, who'd all be going out and having fun together in a way that I couldn't join in with, but it wasn't like that at all.
I get stopped through airport security because people think that I'm an unaccompanied minor
Tom Holland said recently that after The Odyssey and Spider-Man, he would stop playing boys. Now you're 22, is there a point where you're going to be done playing teens?
I thought that Sunny Dancer was going to be my last real teenager role, almost like a closing chapter. But after having so much fun on the film, I feel if it's a well written role of someone who's 17-18, I would still absolutely do it, because I'm not going to be able to do that forever.
Well, if you're 30 and you're still playing teenagers, you need to drop the skincare routine.
Ha! I get stopped through airport security because people think that I'm an unaccompanied minor. It's ridiculous so it's definitely a part of my life!
You said in a recent interview with actor Emma D'Arcy: “I just feel like the point of theatre, film or any sort of art in any medium is to pose questions and to create a feeling of experiencing something as a collective.” What are the questions you are hoping to pose with your work?
That's a lovely question. I guess it's: am I actually making the most of my one and only life? When I'm feeling my best in my life, that's what I'm asking myself frequently. So with Sunny Dancer, it becomes: How can I look death in the eye and can that inform how I live my life? That's the question that I want to carry through my work and personal life. What does it mean to be here, how can we make the best of that in every way, and make everyone's world a little bit better?
Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones
Yeah, especially at a time when it feels like the world is on fire. You can feel helpless because you can't change things on a mass scale.
Yeah, exactly. It feels very out of your control. So it's like, what can I control in my immediate life and make things a little bit better?
If you could be prime minister for a day, what would you do?
Find a way to reduce the cost of living crisis and make everything a bit easier for everyone. Prioritising not continuing the warming of the world and that being treated as an actual emergency. I'd probably figure out some systems for that.
What's the thing that annoys you most at the moment?
The constant cycle of washing clothes and drying clothes and putting clothes away and then having to wear them and then wash them and dry them and put them away again. I wish there was a better system.
Tell us about something that's given you hope over the past few months.
When I was a kid, I had a very strong, pure faith, and that's something I've been trying to find again as I'm getting older. I've been going to Quaker meetings where you just sit in silence with a bunch of people for an hour on a Sunday. It has a real impact on me for the rest of the week and gives you a beautiful lens to look at the world. That's been giving me hope.
And, finally, what is your favourite joke?
My favourite joke from when I was younger is: why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants?
I don't know.
In case they get a hole in one.
Sunny Dancer is in UK and Irish cinemas now