Seven weeks filming Sunny Dancer let Bella Ramsey experience the teenage freedom they feel they largely missed after spending adolescence working with adults.
Ramsey, 22, said they had deliberately avoided the moody, rebellious stereotype after hearing adult criticism, but the role later made them wish they had been less sensible.
Sunny Dancer casts Ramsey as Ivy, a cancer survivor in remission who arrives reluctantly at a summer camp and finds friendship; younger co-stars also introduced Ramsey to songs and nights out they had missed.
George Jaques, who wrote and directed the film after his mother’s cancer diagnosis when he was 15, said young survivors helped shape the script and pushed back on being labeled "kids" or "brave."
Both Ramsey and Jaques said the film also opens a wider conversation about grief, arguing people need more room to express loss without pressure to quickly return to normal.