Ágota Dunai - On Screen Thriller, Suspense Filled Films

While she has moved around a bit, actress Ágota Dunai now calls Budapest home, in her native country Hungary. You may have seen her in the high altitude action thriller Fight and Flight starring Josh Hartnett, the second time she has worked with him and Katee Sackhoff or perhaps in the film Dr Jason II Lights and Shades, streaming on Amazon (in some countries) and soon you will be able to see her in a Tom Cruise movie (at press time still to be titled). With three films either released or in production during 2025 and two more from 2024, Ágota Dunai’s career is gathering momentum and so it should for this talented young actor. 

In the film Fight and Flight, Ágota Dunai says, “I played a flight attendant. I had flight attendant experience before in another film, and they chose me,” Although she had a minor role in the film she says, “I really hope it made it to the film. I haven’t seen the film yet. There was one scene when the plane starts to crash and there is a lot of shaking and someone falls down. Then I go to the (person) and help him up. I ask if he is okay and ask if he needs medical help. That was my speaking scene, but in many other scenes I was packing, sorting and helping with seatbelts. Also, when there were fight scenes, I was trying to protect the other passengers. There is one scene when somebody gets cut with a chainsaw and there is fake blood scattered on me. There are a lot of action scenes.

I (also) worked with Josh Hartnett in The Fear Index. It was nice to work with him again.”

With impeccable English, proficient in German and of course her native language Hungarian, it would seem that the opportunities will soon be pouring in for a genre she confesses to like, action films.

In the film Dr. Jason II Lights and Shadows, Ágota Dunai worked with the award-winning Greek director George Tounas (Rush 4 – 2025, Reloaded and Reloaded 2) and she was in the lead role in this psychological thriller. (Tounas now makes his home in Stuttgart, Germany)

“My character is a female lead called Jenna Knightley. I know these days there are a lot of feminist heroes, but this film was not like this at all. This woman was kidnapped and she is rescued by her love Dr. Jason. In this film I was the victim who was waiting and hoping to be rescued. (editor’s note: spoiler alert – you will have to watch the film).

Then I got rescued at the end (This is a spoiler). It was exciting and it was an independent film in Germany. It is streaming, so people can watch it on Amazon and other platforms. It is a psychological thriller.”

As for her character, “I always (develop) a back story for the character. After reading the script, I try to imagine, who this person is and how she became the way that she is. What her goals and plans are and what motivates her. I try to understand her personality and who she really is. I try to imagine myself as though I am that person. Jenna is sweet, innocent and adventurous, but she was (strong enough) to fight back when she encountered trouble.

I play all kinds of characters and I could play evil characters, for instance right now what I am shooting I am playing a Russian spy. She is quite twisted. Of course, in my personal life I cannot live like that (while playing the character). That would ruin all of the relationships in my life. I get into that while I am shooting, but not in my personal life,” she says.

In other words, she does not take method acting to the extreme and not embodying the character once she leaves the film set and surprising her husband when she gets home, with the persona of a spy.

Ágota Dunai was born in Debrecen, Hungary and now makes Budapest her home.

“I didn’t really grow up in one place. Both of my parents were at the university at Debrecen, but I was just born there, because we moved away when I was a baby. Then we moved to The Netherlands, because my father got a job there as a computer programmer. When I started school, we moved back to Hungary.

After my father passed away, we moved a lot, before we settled in Budapest. We have lived here since before I was in high school. I grew up here in Budapest and my mom is an English teacher. Also, in high school I did my studies in English. There was an option to go to an international school and I did that. I went to the U.S. (as part of a high school program) to study for one year in Baltimore.

As a child I was very shy and acting helped me to get out of that. When I was doing theater though, and I got into a role, then I wasn’t shy. When I was doing that role, I was okay. When I was myself then I was shy, so I really enjoyed getting into roles and being someone else instead of myself.

When I started acting as a child, for a long time I didn’t want to be an actress yet. I had all kinds of ideas what I wanted to be. Whenever I acted it gave me joy and I could see that I was bringing joy to other people. I could see that I was bringing them good entertainment. I felt really good doing it and I got a lot of positive feedback. Afterwards people came up to me and all of the other students told me that my performance was so good. I thought okay, this is what I want to do. I want this feeling for my whole life. I wrote scripts too (as a child).

The very first thing (I performed in) was when I was in kindergarten. I was five years old. I had just moved to a new kindergarten and they were doing a performance for the parents for Mother’s Day. They already had the play and I watched it for a few times and I memorized the whole play.

The girl who was supposed to be the lead became sick and so I said I know the whole thing and I just played it. I played the lead for the practices and then I was hoping she stayed sick, so I could play it for real. Then the (other girl) came back to play the lead. The kindergarten teacher put me on the side to be one of the trees. That was my first performance being on the side as a tree. At least I got to dance,” she says.

It seems as though recently, Ágota Dunai is being cast in higher profile films and with higher profile actors.

“You get one good credit and (it leads) to the next one. It is there on my portfolio and people see it. When they see those credits, they are more likely to choose me.

The film I am working on now, I am working with Tom Cruise and I am really excited about that. I was playing a flight attendant in this film too. Tom Cruise is the lead and it has an Oscar winning director.

Tom Cruise is a very rich man in this film and he has a private plane and I am his private stewardess. I often get cast as a stewardess, I think, because I am pretty tall. When people see me, they often cast me for that kind of a role. I know in the U.S. there is no height limit, so short people can be stewardesses. Here there is a height limit if you want to work. Often passengers cannot (put their things into the overhead bins) and then the stewardess has to be able to reach and help with the bags,” she explains.  

Ágota Dunai also played the lead in the short, 13-minute film, Out Of Control.

“It is a Norwegian, independent film and Ole A. Hagen directed it (and wrote the screenplay). This is his second short film. I played the lead. It was pretty exciting. I was playing an archaeologist. One of my best friends is an archaeologist, so I talked to her a lot about this. It is a story. My character finds some treasure, but because of that I have people chasing me and it becomes more like an action film. I am trying to get away from them and trying to secure everything. There was a lot of running. I enjoyed it.

It only took us three days to shoot it in Oslo, Norway and it is not out to the public yet, as it is in film festivals. It has already won some prizes.

It helped (having a friend who is an archaeologist), because we were sharing quite a bit about our jobs. So, for this character, I already had an idea of what it is like to be an archaeologist,” she says and you can hear the excitement in her voice and her eyes light up.

There is a great improvised scene in the film where her character is seeking help and desperate, because they people after her have hacked her computer. This is the scene that first caught our attention and drew us to her as an actor and, became one of the reasons why we approached Ágota Dunai about doing an interview with Riveting Riffs Magazine.

We already talked about her affinity for action films, but we wanted to pursue that line of thought a bit more.

She has also been cast in the lead role for two Hungarian films, Bújócska and Elrabolva, both of which were directed by Szabó Attila. Having worked with the director in several supporting roles, before becoming the leading actor in these two films she says she was “Thrilled when he asked me to play the lead role in Bújócska."

“Bújócska is a crime drama where my character’s son gets kidnapped, and throughout the film she tries to find him and uncover what really happened. We shot it with a small crew, mostly in a secluded forest house. It was an intense, but really fun experience and because of our tight rental schedule, we filmed day and night. By the end, we were all pretty exhausted. The long hours brought us closer together and we became great friends.  

When Szabó Attila and I worked together again on Elrabolva, it felt like a reunion. My character discovers someone hidden in her car trunk and she decides to help him. This leads her to danger; she is pursued and the story begins to unfold.

For the filming we rented an old train station and had mostly night shoots. It was a thrilling atmosphere to work in.

Recently, Szabó Attila invited me to join him for another film this summer. This time there is not a single lead character, there are four of them and I will be one,” she explains.

“Shooting wise I enjoy all of them (genres). It is more the character that can really grab me. If the character is a lot different than I am then I find it more challenging as an actor and more exciting. I really like to get into characters whose personality and life are different than mine. I enjoy shooting all of them. I like shooting action, I like comedy if it is lighthearted and I also like shooting horror, because when we are in it, it is not scary. They also aren’t scary and they are friends. The effects and the sounds are not there yet. When I watch them, then it is scary. I also enjoy shooting all kinds of films and when I watch films, I prefer to watch comedies and romantic films,” she says.

Many people do not realize what a hotbed Hungary has become for films.

“In Hungary we have two very big studios, Origo Filmstúdió and Korda Filmstúdió.  We have a lot of films coming here from the U.K., the U.S., Spanish series and Indian films. It is a great opportunity for local actors. Often, they bring their main characters and here they are casting for the side characters and small parts. Because they bring a lot of money, our movies have started to become better too and we can invest more money into our films. Now, the series that we make are with a higher budget than before. For me as a Hungarian actress I think Hungary is the best, because I can book international and local films here,” she says.  

Most recently, Attila invited me to join another film this summer. This time, there isn’t a single lead character—there are four of us, and I’ll be one of them. 

Please visit Ágota Dunai IMDB page where you can watch her most recent showreel and you can follow her on Instagram here.    Return to Our Front Page