Who is Mickey Sumner, Sting’s Snowpiercer actress daughter? She was also in Frances Ha with Adam Driver, landed her first role thanks to the Safdie brothers, and once played Patti Smith
Born to Sting and Trudie Styler, Sumner has described herself as a ‘nomadic child’ and was initially reticent about getting into acting – she’s also mum to son Akira, who has a rare genetic disorder
“I loved watching my mum and my dad on stage, who did a couple of plays, take on these new roles and wear different costumes. I secretly wanted that but didn’t really believe in myself.”
So, how did Sumner eventually find her way to acting?
She was often on the road
Born in January 1984 in London to 17-time Grammy Award-winning musician Sting and British actress Trudie Styler, Mickey spent much of her childhood on the road touring with her parents. “I was mainly raised in England … [and] I did first grade in New York,” she said in the Rose & Ivy interview. “I was a very nomadic child.”
It wasn’t until she studied fine art at New York’s Parsons School of Design and began exploring video performance that she became captivated by it. She discovered that being shy didn’t deter her from becoming an actress, as it allowed her to embody various characters.
Having friends from NYU, Boston Conservatory and Bard who were working on their own short films proved invaluable for Sumner. “I started offering myself by saying, if you ever need an actress, I am interested,” she explained in the same interview. “I started acting classes at night, and by the time I graduated, I decided that I didn’t want to make that type of art, I just wanted to act.”
Her first film role came through a connection with the now critically acclaimed filmmakers and actors, the Safdie brothers, Benny and Josh, her neighbours in New York, per Collider.
“I was in art school in Paris my first year, and Josh texted me saying, ‘I really want you to do a movie … I have this idea called We’re Going to the Zoo, and I want you and your brother to do it,’” she recalled. “I was back in America briefly, so I went to Boston with my six-year-old brother and we shot a movie with the Safdie brothers, Benny and Josh, my friends.”