Anna Lumley never set out to become an actor. She studied screenwriting, assuming storytelling would stay on the page, not expecting to find herself in front of a camera at all. A move from New York to Los Angeles, a modelling career, and an agent’s suggestion to try commercial acting classes changed that and what she found, somewhat to her own surprise, was freedom.
Since the start of 2025 she has played more than fifteen lead villainess roles across vertical series, including We Switched Bodies and Bound by Honor, alongside a dual, time-spanning performance as Elena in The Rebirth of the Lycan Queen that she describes as having genuinely shifted how she approaches her craft. Before any of it, she spent three seasons dancing professionally for the Brooklyn Nets in New York, a city, and a period, she still carries with her.
She is currently writing a horror pilot with a friend, in which she’ll also play the villain. Outside of acting, animal welfare has quietly run through her life since university, shaping the roles she turns down as much as the ones she accepts.
A Freedom She Hadn’t Felt Before
You’ve moved between vertical series like We Switched Bodies, The Rebirth of the Lycan Queen, and Bound by Honor. What first drew you to acting, and how has that pull changed as your career has grown?
I never really thought I’d become an actor. I went to school for screenwriting because I always knew I wanted to tell stories, but I was also very introverted and not particularly outspoken. I was often made to feel bad about that, so acting never even crossed my mind as something I could do.
After moving from New York City to Los Angeles, I was primarily modeling, and my agent suggested that I take some commercial acting classes so I could audition for commercials. I was surprised by how quickly my reservations about putting myself out there disappeared. When I was acting, I wasn’t worried about being myself or how I was coming across, I was stepping into someone else’s world. There was a freedom in that that I hadn’t experienced before.
I’ve also always been someone who quietly observes people. For a long time, I thought being quiet or reserved was something I needed to overcome, and I never imagined it could actually become one of my strengths as an actor. Being observant allows me to take in a lot before I ever have to say anything, and I think that’s become incredibly useful in understanding characters and finding the details that make them feel real.
I almost immediately felt like I had found something that had been missing for a very long time. And as my career has grown, that feeling has only gotten stronger. I genuinely can’t imagine a day without acting now whether I’m self-taping, learning lines from a play, taking a class, or being on set. It’s become much more than a career, it’s one of the main ways I express myself.
— Anna Lumley
What’s Underneath the Anger
Playing villains, what did you find yourself most drawn to, and what did they ask of you as a performer?
Throughout vertical series and otherwise, I’ve very often been cast as the villain, although I’ve gotten a few chances to play the nice girl too, haha. I love playing antagonists.
My first antagonist role was in a feature film that unfortunately never came out, but even with very little acting training at the time, stepping into that character felt surprisingly natural. Since the beginning of 2025, I’ve played more than 15 lead villainess roles in vertical series, so it’s become a pretty significant part of my work.
What I’m most drawn to in villains is their pain. I don’t think a good antagonist should ever be one-dimensional. There’s always something underneath the behavior, a history, an insecurity, a loss, a desire, or, most importantly, fear. With vertical antagonists, it can be tempting to play everything through anger because the character is often written as the “mean girl” or the person creating conflict. But anger is actually a very linear emotion to me. I’m much more interested in asking, what is underneath that anger? What would happen if they stopped fighting for a moment?
I connect to some of those emotions personally, not to the villains themselves or the choices they make, but to the fear, insecurity, desperation, and desire to be seen or understood underneath them. Those are very human emotions, and drawing from my own experiences with them helps me find something truthful in characters who might otherwise seem very far removed from me.
— Anna Lumley
A Woman Who Had Truly Lived
Is there a role, so far, that changed how you see your own craft and if so, what shifted?
One role that really shifted how I see my own craft was Elena in The Rebirth of the Lycan Queen. What made the role particularly challenging and exciting was that I got to play her at two very different points in her life. I first played her as a young woman, and then, after a significant time jump, I played her much later in life.
In between those two versions of her, Elena had spent years as a slave and had experienced tremendous physical and emotional suffering. So when we meet her again, I had to find a way to show all of that history in an older version of the same woman. I couldn’t just change her appearance or mannerisms, I had to think about how years of trauma and survival would change the way she carried herself.
What I found especially exciting was getting to play a woman who had truly lived. She had experienced love, loss, motherhood, suffering, and years of survival, and all of those things existed within her at once. It made me realize how drawn I am to portraying women with that kind of history. women who aren’t defined by just one stage of their lives, but who carry everything they’ve experienced with them. Those are the kinds of women I’d love to explore more in my work, particularly outside of vertical series.
Playing Elena shifted my craft because it taught me that sometimes the most important work as an actor isn’t what you add to a character, but everything you imagine they’ve lived through before the scene even begins.
Whatever Happens, Happens
How do you typically prepare for a new character? Does your process change depending on the genre or medium?
I’m very much a last-minute person when it comes to creative work. I don’t always sit down and formally prepare for a character. Instead, I do a lot of thinking. Once I know I’m doing a role, the character tends to follow me around, I’ll be walking, driving, doing something completely unrelated, and I’ll just be thinking about who this person is.
I’m definitely more of a “figure it out in the moment” person. It’s probably a little bit procrastination and a little bit instinct. I actually remember doing my 60-page master’s thesis and spending months thinking about it, only to write the majority of it over the course of two nights. So apparently this is just how my brain works.
There have been roles where I’ve needed to be much more intentional, though. When I played Stephanie and Lisa in We Switched Bodies, I was essentially playing two characters, the protagonist and the antagonist which required me to make very clear distinctions between them. We had a relatively short amount of preparation time, and I remember wishing that the other actress and I had been able to sit down together beforehand and really map out both characters and how they would interact. That would have given us even more to play with.
This is actually very different from the rest of my life. I’m pretty Type A, I like things planned, organized, and on time. But when I’m writing, acting, or dancing, something switches in me. I become much more comfortable with “whatever happens, happens.” I think I need that freedom creatively. I can spend a lot of time thinking and observing, but when it’s finally time to create, I don’t want to control every little thing. I want to see what happens in the moment.
Where She Draws the Line
You’ve worked across film, television, commercials, and modeling. How do you decide which opportunities to say yes to?
I’m actually very open when it comes to the projects I take on. I don’t want to box myself into one particular type of work.
The one thing I’m pretty firm about is animal welfare. I’ve turned down opportunities because they involved companies or products that didn’t align with my values, including a McDonald’s commercial and modeling work for cosmetics that weren’t cruelty-free.
There have also been acting roles where my character was written to eat meat, which would normally be a deal breaker for me. In those cases, production has been open to finding an alternative, which I really appreciate. I think it’s about being flexible creatively while still staying true to what matters to me personally.
The Pool at Five A.M.
What’s a moment on set, this year or in a past production, that reminded you why you love this work?
One moment that really reminded me why I love this work happened on We Switched Bodies. It was our last scene of the entire shoot, and we were on set at 5 a.m. after several very long days. I had learned around 70 pages of script on the fly that week, and by that point I was completely exhausted. Then our final scene was falling into a pool just as the sun was coming up.
I’ll admit, I had a mini panic attack beforehand. I don’t particularly love water, and I definitely don’t love cold water, and at 5:30 in the morning I thought, “I genuinely don’t know if I can do this.” I was telling Liz, my co-lead, and she just made me stop and take a breath. She told me everything was going to be fine, that the pool would be okay, and that I was going to survive.
That’s actually what I remember most about the experience not even the pool, but the people I was surrounded by. When you spend that many long days on set with the same group of people, you go through everything together: exhaustion, stress, fun, little moments of panic, and then somehow you’re still showing up for each other and getting the work done.
I did the scene, survived the pool, and we wrapped. But I think that moment with Liz stayed with me because it reminded me how much I love the relationships you build through this work. You can meet people on a set and, within a few days, feel like you’ve been through something with them.
Still Ahead
Is there a genre, character type, or collaborator you haven’t worked with yet but hope to?
I feel like everything is still ahead of me, but there are definitely a few things at the top of my list. I’d love to play the really dry, deadpan person in a sitcom, that’s basically me in real life haha. I’d also love to play a queen or some kind of powerful woman in a period piece, and then, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, a superhero or assassin-type character where I could really incorporate my dance background and physicality.
How would you describe your relationship with an audience, do you think about them while you’re working, or only once a project is out in the world?
I don’t really think about the audience while I’m in the process of acting. Once I’m on set, I’m very focused on the character and the story and what’s happening in the moment. But I do think about the audience in terms of what I hope they get from watching.
I love the idea that something I’m in can give someone a little bit of an escape from their own life. Maybe they’re watching after a long day and just get completely absorbed in a story for a while. And with villains, I actually love when someone tells me, “I HATE her.” To me, that means I did my job well haha!
If I can make someone feel something strongly, whether that’s rooting for a character, getting angry at them, laughing, or just forgetting about their own life for a little while, that’s really rewarding to me. Once the project is out, I’m interested in seeing what people connected with and what kind of reaction the character created.
The Pilot, and the Long-Term Dream
What are you currently working on, or what’s coming up next that you’re able to share?
I’m currently writing a pilot for a horror series with one of my friends, and I’ll also be playing the villain. I’m SO excited about it, but I can’t share too much just yet! Stay tuned!
Outside of acting, what’s currently holding your attention, a person, a place, a piece of art, a habit?
Animals have always been a huge part of my life, and animal welfare is something I’ve been thinking about and researching for many years. It became a particularly big area of interest for me throughout college and my master’s, during which I researched factory farming and the way animals are treated within that system. A lot of what I learned was difficult to process, but it also made me want to focus on the subject and eventually write about it.
Long term, one of my biggest dreams is to have an animal rescue or shelter of my own. I want to create a place where animals who have been abandoned, neglected, or simply need somewhere safe can have a second chance. I’d also like it to be a place where people can spend time with the animals and get to know them, as well as an educational space where kids can learn about animals and animal welfare. This is going to be a part of my life alongside acting.
Freddy, New York, and a Day Off
If your life right now had a single image or scene as its cover, what would it be?
Me standing in front of the white wall in my bedroom, ring light on, with my computer precariously balanced on an Xbox box and a PlayStation box, which are stacked on a bar stool because I still haven’t bought a proper stand. Basically, I’ve built a fully functioning production studio out of things I already had lying around. The furniture has been shoved against the walls because my bedroom also needs to double as a dance studio whenever I get a dance audition, or I have to do the dreaded full-body slate. And then there’s my cat Freddy sitting on the bed, watching and judging the whole production.
A place, city, or set that has stayed with you long after leaving it and why.
New York will always be a place that stays with me. I went to NYU there, spent some of my most formative years in the city, and eventually danced professionally for the Brooklyn Nets for three seasons. It was also a place of some really difficult experiences and memories, so I probably have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it.
But I think that’s part of why it had such an impact on me. New York taught me how to keep going. You can get rejected in the morning, perform that night, and wake up and do it all over again. And on a much more personal note, that’s also where I found Freddy, which makes New York permanently connected to one of the most special parts of my life.
What does a perfect day off look like for you?
A perfect day off would be either going up to the mountains and spending the day in nature, or completely rotting on the couch in pajamas watching cartoons with Freddy. Haha. There aren’t many true days off in this business, and even when I’m technically off, I’m usually still thinking about a project, so I might as well do it from the couch.
Away from a script, do you have a website, portfolio, or platform where people can follow your work and is there anything about how it currently represents you that you’d want to change?
Instagram (@alice_anusia) is probably the best place to follow my work. I’m trying to be more consistent with it and keep up with trends, although I sometimes feel like I’m stuck in the pre-social-media era. I’m definitely still figuring out how to balance sharing my work with creating content that’s actually relevant.
“Sometimes the most important work as an actor isn’t what you add to a character, but everything you imagine they’ve lived through before the scene even begins.”