Bella Ramsey, Neil Patrick Harris in 'Sunny Dancer.' Berlinale Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment 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." Related Stories General News Shop Like a Berliner: Five Streets to Stroll, Splurge and Discover Movies Michelle Yeoh Tearfully Accepts Berlin's Golden Bear From Sean Baker as Fest Opens With 'No Good Men' Premiere 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