Few survive the Predator, but Amber Midthunder — who hunted down the sci-fi monster in the excellent prequel Prey — not only escaped the jungle in one piece but also became one of Hollywood’s brightest new prospects in the process.
Right now the 27-year-old is in the thick of a film double-header: a chilling appearance in the utterly bonkers John Malkovich horror Opus and a deceptively straightforward starring role in the much better Novocaine, where she teams up with another rising star, Jack Quaid.
“I’ve never been a romantic lead before,” she says. “My character Sherry is just a normal girl, but she gets involved in these heightened situations. Jack’s character,
Nate, and Sherry work in a bank, she gets kidnapped in a robbery and he tries to save her. These are everyday people who go through insane situations.”
Novocaine is like Hitchcock on acid, a fish-out-of-water ride with a taste for outrageous moments — “You get so cringed out, hands going in deep-fat fryers and crazy things like that” — that rests heavily on the likeability of the leads. But, after being firmly in warrior mode in Prey, was it hard for Midthunder not to be the one punching people? “Jack does a great job at that, I was happy to pass that on to him.”
Midthunder was born in Shiprock, a town in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, and her Instagram account shows her to be a strong voice for Native Americans, although she doesn’t consider herself an activist: “I’m just an indigenous person who’s doing my best to advocate for my people.”
Her father is an actor, her mother a casting director, and she was always interested in acting — although she cycled through other careers, including being a Brazilian jiu-jitsu trainer.
“My joke is that acting for me was like the best friend you meet at the beginning of a rom-com,” she says. “You go through all these other experiences only to inevitably end up with acting.” Moving to LA as a teen brought her early roles in Legion and that underrated Liam Neeson film, The Ice Road, but 2022’s Prey was the big one. “It definitely changed my life. My career has shifted. It was a milestone for me.”
While Novocaine adds screwball romance to her CV, she brings her usual edge to it, and it’s clear here’s a new star who has a formidable presence. Outside film-making, is she tough? “I like FaceTiming my friends and crafting together. We talk and craft.”
Novocaine is in cinemas now
