Director George Jaques Takes Us Inside His Coming-of-Age Cancer Comedy 'Sunny Dancer'

Bella Ramsey, Jessica Gunning and Neil Patrick Harris star

Sunny Dancer is a film about a group of teenagers dealing with cancer. But not one scene is set in a hospital room. Instead, the action in this lively coming-of-age comedy takes place at a summer camp for young survivors.

It’s the last place Ivy Pritchard wants to be. But soon after her parents drop her off at what she disparagingly refers to as “chemo camp,” the sullen teen falls in with a group of rowdy misfits and finally feels like she belongs in the world again.

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George Jaques, who started his production company, Athenaeum Productions, 10 years ago, wrote and directed this low-budget British indie. He cast The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey as reluctant camper Ivy; Jessica Gunning as Ivy’s boisterous mom; and Neil Patrick Harris as the earnest leader of the camp.

Here, Jaques, who also directs spots through Stink Films, discusses the inspiration behind Sunny Dancer and how he snagged Ramsey, quite a get for a filmmaker who had only made one feature before this one.

Have you had or do you know someone who has had cancer?

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 15. It’s such a formative age. It’s where you really need your parents as much as you don’t want your parents. When my mom was diagnosed, she spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals. She had stage 3 breast cancer. She battled for eight years, and she survived. I think being that close to it, you sort of realize, okay, well, it’s such a journey, and there’s so many ups and downs. I started my production company when I was 16, and it was the thing I wanted to write about. I really wanted to make this comedy about cancer.

I started working with Teenage Cancer Trust as an ambassador. It’s a brilliant U.K. charity, which basically sets up units and hospital wards for young people so they can all go hang out and do what normal young people do, but in hospitals. When I was working with them, I realized that cancer was the least interesting thing about these young people. They’re so full of life. They’re just as angry at the world and horny—and they they want to drink and party as much as any other teenagers. That made me want to focus on the remission journey and have the first-ever cancer movie with no hospital sets.

It’s also notable that your editor, Caitlin Spiller, is a cancer survivor.

She’s worked with me for years. We cut Black Dog, my first feature, together. When I started writing Sunny Dancer, I was in the edit of Black Dog, and I said to Caitlin, “I really want to make a film about cancer, but I want to do an ensemble film.” And she was like, “Oh, you know I went to these summer camps for kids affected by cancer.” I was like, “I didn’t even know you had cancer as a kid.” She said, “It’s not the first thing you lead with.”

Then she would tell me stories about her best friend there that had a glass eye that they used to pop out and put in his mouth. And they’d get their other mate’s leg and throw it at people’s doors. It was amazing to have her insight.

Bella Ramsey plays your lead character. Why were they right for this role?

Bella’s name got brought up to me by my cast directors. At the time, The Last of Us series was coming out, and I was like, “Well, there’s no fucking way they’re going to do it!” I got really scared when Bella said yes. Bella’s got such an amazing plethora of work, and I can’t be the only bad film on this list. So, then the pressure started, but we just had such a brilliant working relationship. I needed to make this the most fun job ever and make it feel like a real summer camp for Bella. They were quoted in The Hollywood Reporter about this being the best six weeks of their life.

Bella’s performance is so unbelievable in this film. This was such a broad performance, and I was casting a nonbinary actor in a straight, heterosexual role. That was really exciting to me.

Were you inspired by any camp experiences or movies about camp?

In the U.K., the summer camp thing isn’t a big thing. It’s not like America. We sort of have school trips that you go on to some weird place on the side of a motorway. The big inspirations [for this film] were things like The Breakfast Club. I wanted to bring back those ’90s and ’80s ensemble movies, like Dead Poets Society, The Breakfast Club, The Goonies. I love those movies.

So, it was like, how can I bring that ensemble thing into the present day, especially out of the U.K. Because films like that don’t really get made there.

You make good use of the Scissor Sisters’ “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing” in the movie. Why did you choose that song?

It felt like it was always on in our house. I fell in love with that song and I always knew I wanted it. Then I had to reach out and convince them to give it to us for no basically money. They gave me the track, and I was so grateful.

You’d be horrified if you knew our music budget for the amount of tracks we had. We had no money, really no money for music. I think it’s about finding artists who are going to connect with the work.

You are repped for commercials via Stink Films.

Yeah, Stink’s repped me since I was 18, which is crazy. I’m so proud of the work that I’ve done with them but also excited to start doing really specific stuff.

That leads to my next question: What kind of commercials would you like to be shooting?

Emotional stuff and performance-led stuff. Not just sad, also comedy. But I think it’s all about performance for me.

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