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Elle
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
'The Agency' Star Saura Lightfoot-Leon Is Ready to Show Danny 'In a Very Different Light'
Justin French Jacket, skirt, Mugler. Earrings, Shay Jewelry. Saura Lightfoot-Leon is not a professional dancer—she has, in fact, made a conscious effort not to become a professional dancer—but she knows she moves like one. She is the daughter of Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, both dancers and choreographers in the Netherlands, where she spent the bulk of her childhood in the theater. 'They're very outward, bravely performative people, and they express deeply,' Lightfoot-Leon says of the artists who raised her. 'That's something I've been told by fellow castmates: There's an openness to me.' By the time a teenage Lightfoot-Leon started considering her own aspirations, dance didn't factor into the equation. 'I saw so much of it, you have to understand,' she explains. 'It felt like I'd already lived that life, in a way.' Like most teenagers, she wanted 'to grow up and make myself independent,' and to operate in a circle 'that didn't feel part of my parents' world.' When she was 14, an English teacher recognized Lightfoot-Leon's emotional intelligence within her creative writing, and recommended she try acting. That suggestion spurred her to start researching where she might train, and when multiple people pointed her toward London, her father took her to West End performances on her birthday each year, until she was old enough to leave home. Justin French Turtleneck, culottes, belt, boots, Saint Laurent. Earrings, Van Cleef & Arpels. Soon enough, London became her stomping ground. After graduating with an acting degree from the capital's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2020, Lightfoot-Leon made her television debut in the BBC One series Life After Life , then scored a lead actress role in the 2023 film Hoard , for which she won a Special Jury Mention at the Venice International Film Festival and was later nominated for two British Independent Film Awards. Her breakthrough secured, she spent 2024 appearing in the Apple TV+ drama Masters of the Air , the Netflix western American Primeval , and the Paramount+ spy saga The Agency , which is now filming its second season. Lightfoot-Leon, now 27, doesn't spend as much time in hallowed dance studios as she once did. But neither is she as inclined to ignore dance's impact in her life. She admits her instinct has been to 'hide away something precious that actually influences everything I do,' in an attempt to forge her own distinct path. But 'the moment I really started finding myself in the characters I was playing, the more I struggled to push away that side of me,' she says. 'My past is me, and I don't try to separate that from my work anymore. It lives within me. It gives me a richer body language.' 'My past is me, and I don't try to separate that from my work anymore. It lives within me.' On the set of Hoard , Lightfoot-Leon realized that though she might not want to spend her career in pointe shoes, she did want to spend it in the presence of a company. Acting alongside Joseph Quinn of Stranger Things and Hayley Squires of I, Daniel Blake , and being led by director Luna Carmoon, Lightfoot-Leon recognized a similar feeling: 'an element of the 'company' feel that I continue to look for in my work.' Acting in film and television doesn't always allow her the time to develop the same type of intimate relationships often found in the theater, but Lightfoot-Leon says that The Agency has not only drawn her into a community, with talents like Michael Fassbender and Jeffrey Wright—it's also blessed her with insight into her own mind. As the CIA field officer Danny Morata in the spy thriller series, Lightfoot-Leon plays 'a professional chameleon, who's learning how to access different parts of herself and choosing what she shows and when to show it.' The actress has no trouble drawing parallels to her own experience. 'Where that line is drawn is not only part of a covert agent's life, but also an actor's life. It's like, 'Where does the me who's acting in these scenes stop and the character begin?' So that's fascinating.' (She teases that season 2 will depict Danny 'in a very different light. Season 1 was sowing the seeds. This season is a whole other beast, and it gets scary. She gets real. That's all I'm going to say.') Justin French Turtleneck, culottes, belt, boots, Saint Laurent. Earrings, Van Cleef & Arpels. Like any good artist with a background in movement, Lightfoot-Leon says she judges her potential projects based on the reactions a script evokes in her body. Does it make her laugh? Tense up? Daydream? If she's 'sucked in,' she's sold. 'Art is a language in itself,' she says. 'It's this feeling that's not in my head; it's somewhere in my heart, somewhere in my gut. It involves different parts of your brain and your body and your intuition, and it's been carried across centuries and through different generations of people. 'What I feel it brings us is hope,' she concludes. 'It reminds people of something that, maybe, they've forgotten.' Hair by Sami Knight for Rehab; makeup by Alexandra French at Forward Artists; manicure by Jolene Brodeur at The Wall Group; produced by Anthony Federici at Petty Cash Production; photographed at Malibu Creek Ranch. A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ELLE. Related Stories
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Tom Hunsinger obituary
My writing and directing partner, Tom Hunsinger, who has died aged 72, had careers in acting, writing, directing and teaching. Together we made three feature films, of which Lawless Heart (2001) was the most successful. Tom later found a home as a teacher at Rada, where his fiercely honest opinions inspired devoted respect from many of his students. Tom, an American, was born in Wichita in Kansas to Charlie Hunsinger and Carol (nee Clark), who were farmers. He went to Valley Center high school and then Emporia State University, where he majored in drama before travelling to London in 1975 to study at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Afterwards he became one of the leading actors with the Cherub theatre company, touring nationally and internationally as well as with seasons at the Young Vic in London. He had a short spell away from Cherub with the Royal Shakespeare Company for their 1982-83 season, playing small parts in various productions, before returning briefly to Cherub and then moving on to the Birmingham Rep from the mid-1980s onwards. When we met at the start of the 90s, he was keen to move away from acting, though many will attest that a flair for drama never deserted him. The three independent films we co-wrote and co-directed were Boyfriends (1996), about three gay friends who converge at the seaside for the weekend, each with a boyfriend in tow, Lawless Heart (2001), intersecting stories about people whose lives are affected by the death of a gay restaurateur, and Sparkle (2007), about an ambitious young man who finds he has to choose between his career and the woman of his dreams. All were based on improvisation, and featured actors such as Tom Hollander, Bill Nighy, Shaun Evans, Bob Hoskins, Lesley Manville and Stockard Channing. Boyfriends and Lawless Heart won various awards, including best screenplay for the latter at the British Independent Film Awards. In 2007 Tom joined Rada as a teacher, becoming a course leader from 2011 until 2021. Students past and present benefited immensely from his guidance and mentorship, and many of them remained as friends long after they left the institution. Tom largely resisted the temptations of the 21st century – no mobile phone or social media for him – but remained committed to some from a previous era, most notably Silk Cut cigarettes. He was rarely seen without a large backpack that he carried everywhere; its contents will sadly now forever remain a mystery. He is survived by his brother Terry.
BBC News
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Guernsey film to premiere at national festival
A short film partly shot in Guernsey is due to be screened at the Sunderland Shorts Film Festival. It will be the world premiere of Whispers of Freedom, written and directed by Guernsey filmmaker Brandon film tells the story of Chris Gueffroy, a waiter who tried to flee East Germany after he discovered he was being conscripted to the film was supported by both Guernsey Arts and the DDR Museum in Berlin. The team behind the production said "it beat off several thousand other international short films to win a spot in the Official Selection lineup".The Sunderland Shorts Film Festival is also a qualifying event for the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).After permission was granted to re-tell the story of Chris Gueffroy by his family, work started on the script in Golden Goat Films then produced it the following year, with the cast and crew on location in both Guernsey and Berlin. 'Too many to mention' A number of well known Guernsey locations feature, including the Old Government House hotel and Guernsey Water's Kings Mill site, which was transformed into part of the Berlin Ashplant said local actors and crew worked alongside international names on the project including former Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston, and Oscar nominee Jonathan Tammuz."There's too many names to mention; 148 in total, and around 70% them are local. I cannot thank them enough," Mr Ashplant premiere is due to take place at the Omniplex in Sunderland on 16 May.
