Jessica Henwick

In The Royal Hotel (2023), Jessica Henwick’s Liv thinks the men at the bar are a bit of fun; Julia Garner’s Hanna keeps her eyes on the exits. Henwick is good at making that cheerfulness unsettling, because Hanna cannot count on her friend to share her alarm. We spent much of the first hour tense, especially when Kitty Green holds on Hanna deciding whether to smile at a joke she has not been let in on. Henwick is not simply there to agree with the more apprehensive woman, and the film is better for it.

The action roles make use of a different strength. As Colleen Wing in Iron Fist (2017–2018), she established herself as a convincing physical performer, following her international exposure as Nymeria Sand in Game of Thrones (2015–2017). Bigger film roles followed, including Bugs in The Matrix Resurrections (2021) and Peg in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022). She is often cast as the capable ally or colleague, a sensible presence in a chaotic situation. There is value in that, though it can leave an actor doing useful work without much of a character to play.

The Royal Hotel gives Henwick someone less dependable to play, and Green makes good use of the contrast with Garner. Yet Liv remains cheerful and careless long after the circumstances have made that difficult to accept. The film tells us these women are old friends without showing us enough to understand why, and Henwick cannot supply the missing history on her own. That is a substantial weakness in a thriller which depends so much on how the women respond to each other.

In How to Make a Killing (2026), Ruth is thinner still, and Henwick has little space to change that. Henwick does what she can with the space she is given, though the restriction tells us more about the part than her ability. Start with The Royal Hotel, and be prepared to question why these two women ever went travelling together.