Mickey Sumner

In Frances Ha (2013), Mickey Sumner makes Sophie Levee someone who can resist Greta Gerwig’s Frances without making their friendship hard to believe. Sophie is not simply there to let Frances talk, and Sumner gives her limits enough importance to trouble the comedy. We felt for Sophie because Frances’s need for reassurance makes being close to her look exhausting. The affection survives that feeling. Sumner gives us a reason to care about what the friendship costs both women.

Noah Baumbach and Gerwig’s script puts the friendship at the centre of Frances’s uncertainty, which makes Sumner’s firmness essential. If Sophie were endlessly accommodating, there would be much less at stake. Gerwig makes neediness funny without pretending it is harmless, and Sumner makes its effect on a friend believable. The film sometimes forgives Frances too readily, but the performances keep her behaviour open to question. That is a useful skill in an actor often cast as the grounded person beside a more chaotic lead.

Frances Ha was her breakthrough, followed by supporting work in The Mend (2014) and The End of the Tour (2015). Baumbach became a recurring collaborator, and her further film work included Mistress America (2015) and Marriage Story (2019). There is a danger in being repeatedly useful in an ensemble: the sensible character can end up with little to do beyond reacting. Casting her merely to agree with a more talkative lead would miss what makes Sophie interesting.

Snowpiercer (2020–2024) gave her a longer stretch as Bess Till, a main-cast role across four seasons. She plays a brakeman on the train, with room for vulnerability beneath the no-nonsense manner. The physical preparation included shaving part of her head, a different adjustment from Sophie’s dyed hair and glasses. That sustained television part is a welcome development for an actor whose film work has so often meant supporting someone else. Start with Frances Ha, and give the friend as much attention as the woman doing most of the talking.