Sophie Cookson

The Leap from Oxford

Sophie Cookson barely had time to process the end of her studies at the Oxford School of Drama. In 2013, before the diploma had even cooled, she was already filming the miniseries Moonfleet. It was a rough landing in the industry that spared her the years of waitressing most of her classmates endured.

Luck was on her side.

In 2014, she landed the role of Roxy in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Cookson beat out names with much greater media clout to play a spy who didn't need rescuing by anyone. Matthew Vaughn's production grossed more than $400 million worldwide and put her on the radar of every casting director in London.

But action films were not her only goal, and she soon sought out projects where the script mattered more than the pyrotechnics. And she did so without fear of silence or uncomfortable storylines.

From psychological thriller to political scandal

In 2017, she starred in Gypsy alongside Naomi Watts. The Netflix series explored the ethical limits of therapy, and although it lasted only one season, it showed the industry her ability to hold her own in high-level acting duels. That shoot in New York was her first major experience outside the British system.

The year 2019 marked her definitive breakthrough with The Trial of Christine Keeler. She played the woman who put the British government on the ropes in the 1960s during the famous Profumo affair. It was a total immersion role in which Cookson had to deal with the pressure of portraying a real figure who is still very present in the UK's collective imagination.

She had stopped being an action newcomer and become a character actress.

During the production of Red Joan in 2018, she met Stephen Campbell Moore. The professional rapport carried over off screen, and the two began a relationship they keep low-profile with the press. In that same film, she shared the lead role with Judi Dench, both playing the same spy at different stages of her life.

Technical maturity on set

In 2021, she returned to big-budget productions with Infinite, working under director Antoine Fuqua. The shoot was complex, shaped by the logistical limits of the time, but Cookson kept her policy of not using stunt doubles for scenes that required moderate physical effort.

And her bet on variety kept paying off.

In 2024, she took part in Stockholm Bloodbath, a European co-production shot mainly on location in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The film's budget came close to 13 million euros, and filming stretched over several months in extreme weather conditions. The movie was edited under the supervision of a Swedish technical team in Stockholm.