The diverse talent of Sonoya Mizuno
*Potential spoilers for Annihilation*
Within the many brilliant genre films of the past few years, from science fiction to musical to romantic comedy, Sonoya Mizuno has been there. And the variety is no accident or happenstance. Mizuno’s talents are simply that various, that adaptable.
The Japanese-Argentinian-English actor’s talent for dance is evident, as it’s where she started, once a ballet dancer in Germany, Ireland, England, and Scotland. With that history, it’s a little easier to wrap our minds around the acting career that she has shaped. And yet, Mizuno’s specific choices have shattered any potential box the industry may have wanted to limit her to.
In her breakout role as the artificially intelligent Kyoko in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, she has that iconic dance scene with Oscar Isaac. And unsurprisingly, she crushes it. But what goes unappreciated — perhaps due to how much that dance scene stands out, as well as the terrific Alicia Vikander in a similar role — is that Mizuno brings such a brilliant, distinct physicality, of both grace and minute calculation, to every second of her performance.
It’s this physicality that wholly convinces us of the character’s A.I. nature, but it also necessarily complicates what could’ve been an exploitative role. And by the end of the film, what was once grace quickly morphs into something imposing, tracking character development simply through physicality.
The expected first role of dancer to actor came later for Mizuno, and that’s because she’s not just a dancer-actor — even though she can play those parts fantastically. Her role as Caitlin in La La Land is small, but she still leaves a clear impression, not simply executing but elevating the material, both song and dance, of “Someone in the Crowd.”
It’s in her second collaboration with Alex Garland, though, that Mizuno expands upon her career unlike many other performers today have. Watching Annihilation, we get a small glimpse of her in a classroom toward the beginning of the film. But it’s in another role, one where we don’t see her — much like how we don’t see Andy Serkis himself in the Planet of the Apes trilogy — that Mizuno leaves her mark.
The humanoid in the lighthouse is a mind-boggling science fiction concept, and it’s Mizuno who brings it to life with such immense, vivid force. And the sequence is utterly spellbinding precisely because of her performance.
As we watch the humanoid, we understand that it’s not simply mimicking the movements of Lena (Natalie Portman), but rather learning from her movements. The humanoid is physically imposing, much like Mizuno’s character in Ex Machina, but it’s also strangely intimate and unnervingly parasitic. That Mizuno is able to convey all of that in a performance capture role, one without dialogue, clearly distinguishes her among actors working today.
Mizuno’s most recent role, however, is just as significant of a development in her career as the others. As Araminta in Crazy Rich Asians, she shows off her charismatic and comedic chops. The character is an exaggeration of wealth and the worldview wealth can create, and Mizuno delivers on such hysterically — and a little frighteningly. Araminta is, at times, a bit scary, but she’s supposed to be, as she’s also supposed to be loving and stunning. Like many of Mizuno’s other characters, despite Araminta being a smaller role, she’s still completely integral to the success of the film.
Sonoya Mizuno brings a diversity of performance to her acting career that we don’t see too often today. Not only will we likely see Mizuno continue to pave fascinating and singular space in the science fiction genre, but we’ll surely see her pave space in genres new to her career as well. Imagine the possibilities for a physical and charming talent in the likes of horror or action, where body and charisma are key.
What we do know is that she isn’t simply a big screen talent, as she has never simply been a dancer-actor. She’s performed in the music videos for Frank Ocean’s “Nikes” and The Chemical Brothers’ “Wide Open,” the latter of which deals with physicality and the body in ways similar to her films, drawing a bit of a theme across her body of work.
Her future will bring her to the small screen as well, as later this year and next year, we’ll see her in two extremely exciting TV shows, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Maniac and Alex Garland’s Devs, respectively.
And it’s important to keep in mind: her acting career is just kicking off.
