[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Suncoast.]

The Big Picture

Nico Parker reflects on her ‘Suncoast’ experience working with talented actors like Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson.
Parker describes how a particularly emotional moment in the film felt like therapy and a culmination of her work on the project.
The young actress shares her thoughts on her upcoming role in the live-action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and her desire to make everyone proud.

From writer/director Laura Chinn, the semi-autobiographical Suncoast follows high school teenager Doris (Nico Parker), who is slipping through the cracks of her own life as all her mother’s (Laura Linney) attention is focused on her brother’s hospice care. Through friendships with both a group of classmates and an eccentric activist (Woody Harrelson), Doris comes out of her emotional shell and finds strength in her own voice as an individual.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with Parker about the direction her acting career has already taken her, starting with a desire to be Zendaya and Beyoncé to playing the lead in a movie like Suncoast. She also talked about what it was like to work with her talented co-stars Linney and Harrelson, how the most emotional moments were like therapy, finding the right prom dress, why she wanted to play Astrid in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, how she’s grown since making Dumbo, and her experience working with Pedro Pascal on The Last of Us.

Suncoast From debut feature film writer/director Laura Chinn, a semi-auto-biographical coming of age story about a young woman dealing with her brother’s serious illness.Release Date February 9, 2024 Director Laura Chinn Runtime 109 minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Laura Chinn

Collider: Congratulations on the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance in this movie at Sundance. That’s very cool.

NICO PARKER: Very cool. Thank you very much.

Although you’re still relatively new to doing acting roles, the ones you’ve done so far have been in pretty great projects. When you work with actors the caliber of Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson, does it make the scenes feel that much more natural? What do you absorb when you work with people like that?

PARKER: I can’t really put into words how insane it is to get to work alongside people that talented. It’s such a blessing, in itself. They’re at the top of their game, constantly. They’re never bad. It’s so annoying. I’ll be fumbling around for a line or just being incredibly uninteresting and I look over and their faces are just so compelling. They’re constantly brilliant. As much as I love it, and I love being able to work alongside it, and I’m incredibly lucky for it, I’m like, “Can you guys just mess up one time?” It can be annoying, but it’s amazing. They are both so talented. I learned from them constantly.

Related ‘Suncoast’: Release Date, Cast, Trailer, and Everything We Know About the Coming-of-Age Movie Nico Parker stars alongside industry icons Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson in this coming-of-age drama.

Does the way that they each approach the work feel very different or did it feel like they were coming from a very similar place?

PARKER: Very different, but a similar place, in that they both care very deeply about what they’re doing. You can feel it and see it, but the way that shows itself is different. Laura is incredibly professional. Not to say that Woody isn’t, but she has a regime. When she’s working, she’s working, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s amazing to watch. It’s something that I would love to be able to emulate one day. I think I’m a bit too scatterbrain for it at the moment, but one day, I’d like to get to that. And Woody cares so much about the vibes on set and how he’s interacting with everyone. He’s just so present and in it, and he’s always in it. He’s always thinking and he’s always on. It’s so amazing to watch. When a camera is on him, it’s honestly just like sunshine beaming out of his face. There’s such a presence to him. Their way of behaving on set is different, but it all boils down to being incredibly professional, constantly.

Nico Parker Embraced the Sadder and More Intense Moments of ‘Suncoast’

You have that moment in this where Doris breaks down about saying goodbye to her brother. What was it like to shoot that? Was that challenging to do?

PARKER: It was like therapy. It was towards the end of the shoot and it felt like the final product of everything that I’d been thinking and feeling through the shoot. It was everything that Laura [Chinn] had put into the script and that everyone had put into their work. It just felt like exhaling, is how I would describe it. Being done with that scene was the biggest weight off my shoulders that I didn’t really realize I’d been carrying around while we’d been filming. I actually find sadder scenes and more intense scenes more comfortable because I find that stress puts me in a fight or flight way that I think actually helps me rather than hinders. It was good. I felt good after. I felt happy. I was proud of myself, and I was proud to be part of it, and proud of everyone else. It was good.

Your Suncoast character doesn’t actually ever really make it to prom, but we see her getting ready with her friends and we see her all dressed up. Did you get any say in the prom dress? Did you try on a bunch of dresses, and then pick that one? How did that work?

PARKER: I tried on a few. We knew it was gonna be Laci’s dress, played by Daniella [Taylor], because Doris doesn’t have her own. We had to think of something that Laci would have worn, but it also couldn’t be as nice as theirs. There was one that I liked because it was the Cinderella one, but they were like, “No, that’s too nice.” I actually do love the dress that it ended up being, just because it feels so perfect to what it is.

It’s something you had to wear for a bit and do a few scenes in it.

PARKER: I have to say, aside from how it looks on camera, it was so annoying and so uncomfortable. Sequins are not comfortable. That’s not talked about enough.

16:28 Related ’Suncoast’s Director & Cast Discuss Club Scenes, Wild Parties, Sleepovers, and Surviving a Hurricane Writer-director Laura Chinn and Daniella Taylor, Ariel Martin, Amarr, and Ella Anderson also discuss the talent of Laura Linney and Nico Parker.

Since your mom (Thandiwe Network) is a very talented actor, did you seek out any advice from her on how to handle a bigger role, like with this film or even How to Train Your Dragon?

PARKER: I didn’t. I haven’t and I probably should. I very much just went into it blind.

Did you always know that you wanted to act? When you walked on set for the first time and shot your first scene, did you immediately feel like you were doing what you meant to do, or did you feel like you were still figuring it out?

PARKER: When I first went on set for myself, very much so, I was like, “This is obviously what I want to do forever and ever.” And then, I realized it’s a bit more difficult than that. I was like, “Okay, when’s the next job coming? I want to do this all the time,” at 11. When I was younger, before I’d ever worked on anything myself, I wanted to be a ballerina, so I had no interest in acting, at all. Well, I did, a bit. I just wanted to be Zendaya. I wanted to be a mix of Zendaya and Beyoncé, which is something to work towards.

Nico Parker Wants to Make Everyone Proud with the Live-Action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’

Image via Searchlight Pictures

What made you want to do something like the live-action How to Train Your Dragon? What are you most looking forward to with Astrid and what are you most nervous about?

PARKER: I’m nervous about all of it because I care about it so much and everyone cares about it so much, and I just would so love to make everyone proud. I’m constantly nervous about it. But to me, there was no reason not to do it. It’s being made with such brilliant people and everyone’s so talented and everyone cares about it so deeply. After I spoke to Dean [DeBlois], the director who also made the animated movies, I was just like, how could anyone not want to be involved in it? It’s amazing. It’s stressful, but I’m very, very excited for it to be finished and out into the world and everyone can experience it.

Do you think it’ll feel like the animated movies or does it feel like its own take?

PARKER: I think it’s very much its own thing, but I’d like to think so much of that magic is also prevalent in this one. But I think it’s its own film. It’s its own interpretation and everyone has their own version of a character. It’s important not to get too wrapped up, especially because the animated ones are so brilliant. It’s like, let’s not try and just do a play by play of that. And if anyone wants that, they can watch the animated ones. I think it’ll be wonderful, and if it isn’t, I’m having a wonderful time making it anyway. I’ll think it’s wonderful, no matter what.

I first spoke to you for Dumbo. What do you know about acting now that you wish you knew then?

PARKER: I don’t know. I think I’m still incredibly similar. Whatever I was saying then is probably what I’m saying now.

Do you feel like you’ve grown a lot as an actor, or does it feel like it’s been a natural progression?

PARKER: I feel like I’ve grown as a person, and the two have managed to coincide with one another. I think the more life experiences and more things that you, yourself, experience and you can take into work and put the two together, is something that I have gained since then. When I was younger, and I still do it now sometimes – the Dragon set got annoyed at me for it – I’d speak right before a take. I would speak in [my own] accent, up until, “Action!” They would say, “Action!,” and then I would stop and start the scene. That’s not that professional. I’m slowly realizing it’s not that professional and not that helpful to other people. I do less of that now.

Nico Parker is Forever Grateful for the Time She Spent with Pedro Pascal on Season 1 of ‘The Last of Us’

Image via HBO

You did really beautiful work in The Last of Us. You made a really lasting impression on that series, through the entire season. What do you remember about shooting your final scene with, with Pedro Pascal? What is it like to do a scene like that and to do it with someone like him?

PARKER: I think it was my second to last day of filming, so I’d done it. I felt like we’d done everything and it was the natural end. I knew Pedro really well by then. I was already like, “You’re my best friend and I’m going to know you forever and ever.” We were already really comfortable. That made it all the more depressing because as much as I was saying goodbye to that character, I felt like I was saying goodbye to him and saying goodbye to that set. It was our last scene to film together, and it was just really sad. I was really sad when we finished. But it was such an amazing experience. I’m forever grateful for it. I met some truly brilliant people as a result, one of which being Pedro, who was my buddy. It was brilliant.

Suncoast is available to stream at Hulu. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Hulu