Category: Acting

Last look from this shoot and maybe my favourite. Up on a rooftop at night with the whole neon skyline glittering behind me, red rim light catching my hair, dressed down in a red hoodie and a black denim vest, flowers still braided through, because apparently this character can’t leave home without her wildflowers no matter the era.

There’s something so cinematic about a city at night, all those little lit windows full of stories that aren’t yours. I stood at the edge and gave the camera a cool, level stare, the kind of shot that opens a trailer. Modern, a bit tough, a bit dreamy. From longhouses and dragons to a glowing skyline in one body of work, I’m so grateful for the range this year has handed me. Onto the next.

#rooftop #actorslife

Total tonal switch for this project. No armour, no battlefield, just me in a black hoodie, hands in my pockets, standing in the middle of a wet city street at dusk while a tram slides past and the lights bleed across the road. The flowers and the beaded band stayed in my hair though, a little thread of the character that follows her even here.

We shot in genuine drizzle, which the cinematographer was thrilled about because rain makes everything glow. My job was simple and impossible: walk to my mark, stop, and let the loneliness of the city read on my face without doing anything. Urban, moody, quietly heartbroken. I really love work that trusts a still face to carry the whole feeling. Different world, same commitment.

#citynights #onlocation

Poster day. They put me in this shimmering, gold-threaded gown, wove wildflowers and beads through my hair, and stood me on the rocks with the fjord and snow-capped mountains behind and the aurora painted across the sky. The wind did half the work, catching my hair, and the sunset lit the whole thing on fire.

This is the key art, the image that’ll hopefully make people stop scrolling and want to know her story. There’s a real pressure to hold one look that says everything about the character in a single frame: strong, otherworldly, a little sad. I turned into the wind, found the light, and gave the lens my most honest version of her. Fingers crossed it ends up on a few walls one day.

#keyart #posterday

We stole this one at the tail end of a very long shoot day, by the fire, under a sky the lighting team dressed up to look like the aurora dancing over the water. Warm flames on my face, flowers woven all down my hair, and the softest, happiest version of the character I’ve gotten to play so far.

Her whole arc is heavy, so getting to sit by the fire and just be warm and a little in love was a gift. I let myself smile properly, the kind that reaches your eyes. Between takes we all huddled by the flames because it was genuinely freezing on location. These are the nights you don’t forget, the ones that make the early call times and the mud and the aching feet completely worth it.

#goldenhour #actorslife

Okay, full disclosure: the dragon was a tennis ball on a stick. I’m standing in a muddy village set, shield on my arm, flowers still braided into my hair, glancing back over my shoulder at absolutely nothing, and later the VFX team turned that nothing into a mountain-sized beast with burning eyes.

Acting against thin air is its own skill. You have to genuinely believe the terror, sell the scale, make your eyes go somewhere real. The burning huts and the banners and the marching extras were all there on the day, so at least I had that to feed off. Seeing the finished shot with the dragon dropped in gave me chills. I looked properly brave, if I do say so. Big fantasy energy and I am living for it.

#vfx #fantasyfilm

A rare tender moment in an otherwise brutal story. They wrapped me in furs against the cold, warm firelight on one side, this dreamy wash of blue and green light behind me, and asked for something gentle for once. She’s allowed a breath. A small, private almost-smile before the world caves back in.

I adore the quiet scenes. Everyone expects the shouting and the fighting to be the hard part, but holding a soft, thinking face and letting the audience read a whole inner life into it, that’s the real craft. I kept my eyes down, listening to the crackle of the fire, and just let her feel safe for ten seconds. Sometimes that’s the most radical thing a character can do.

#quietmoments #onset

The big emotional beat of the whole shoot. Storm rolling in overhead, sweat and rain on my skin, and the direction was simple: look up and let it break. She’s just lost everything and she’s asking the sky why.

We went again and again until the tears were real, until my throat hurt, until I stopped performing grief and just felt it. The wildflowers were still tangled in my hair from the earlier scenes, which somehow made it more heartbreaking to me. There’s nowhere to hide in a shot like this, the lens right in your face, the whole crew silent and rooting for you. When the director finally said “got it,” I sat down in the mud and cried for real. Cathartic doesn’t begin to cover it.

#emotionalscene #actorslife

One of my favourite scenes to shoot: she steps out of the battlefield and into a quiet room, still in her leather armour, still crowned in flowers, and suddenly she doesn’t belong anywhere. We filmed it late, all cold blue light through the window, the house dark and hushed around me.

There are no big lines here. It’s all in the eyes, the way she scans the space like a threat could come from the shadows even when she’s supposedly safe. Playing stillness is harder than any fight choreography. I stood at that window take after take, holding the tension, letting the silence do the work. The crew barely breathed. Nights like this remind me why I fell in love with acting.

#nightshoot #actorslife

Two hours in the makeup chair for this one. They dragged the black paint down from my brow, under my eyes, over my lips, then softened the whole thing with daisies threaded through my hair like the character can’t quite let go of who she was before the war took everything.

That contrast is the whole role for me. The camera came in close for this shot, embers drifting in the smoke behind me, and I had to hold the stare without blinking, without softening. It’s a strange kind of concentration, letting your face carry the story while you barely move. I walked away from the monitor genuinely shaken by her. That’s the good kind of tired.

#characterwork #warpaint

First day on the new set and honestly I had to pinch myself. They laced me into this dark corset, wove daisies and wildflowers through my hair, tied a beaded band across my brow, and handed me a spear taller than I am. Behind me the extras were milling around the timber longhouse, warpaint drying, and I just stood there in the dust trying to hold the character’s stillness before “action.”

There’s a moment right before the first take where everything goes quiet and you stop being yourself. She’s watching for something off-camera, wary, ready. I love that she’s soft and fierce at once, flowers and a blade. Grateful doesn’t cover it. More from behind the scenes soon.

#onset #actorslife