Most people when they think of Black Forest, think of the delicious cake or the legendary forest in Germany, but there is also the sixty-two minute, 2025 film Black Forest written and directed by Attila Szabó. It stars Hungarian actors Ágota Dunai and Gábor Joó. If you are a fan of Black Mirror, thriller films with a little bit of fantasy mixed in, you will probably enjoy this film. Dunai who is quickly garnering international attention is a very good actress who has played everything from Natalia in Black Forest, to a Drag King, a few flight attendants and a French football player’s wife. She has socialized with Mozart, been a smuggler and been a Celtic shaman playing a drum. Her film credits include appearing in films with Josh Hartnett, Tom Cruise, and Katee Sackhoff. The Cruise film is scheduled for release this fall and she was not allowed to tell us more than that.

She describes Black Forest which appeared on Hungarian television as, “weird, dark things are happening.

Natalia (Dunai) and her husband Kevin (Joó)) are going down the road and another car almost hits them. They get off the road and they decide to stop there and have their hike in that part of the forest. After a while they realize they are lost, so they decide to go back to their car, but they cannot find it. They find another couple who are lost as well.”

From there the film takes a turn that is part Sliding Doors (the film), part Alfred Hitchock and very supernatural, as seemingly evil forces try to prevent them from finding their way out of the forest.  

“Everybody’s story goes in a different way,” she says.

One of the more interesting roles that Ágota Dunai has appeared in was as a drag king, who knew? We thought there were only drag queens.

“Recently, I was cast to play a drag king. I was in shock and even my agent was in shock. I was really happy. It was a small role, but that finally made me think, finally I am breaking out of my stereotype. I think the kinds of roles I get are expanding. I can’t really talk about it, because the film is still being made, but my shooting days are done.

I do get into the mindset as I am preparing (for a  role). I try to build the backstory of the character, what she went through and how she became what she is now. What were her goals and her purpose. I try to get into the mindset as much as I can, especially if it is something I do not know much about. For example, this drag king, it was not something I thought about before. I started to do my research, what are these people doing and how do they do it. So, I do try and get into the mindset to understand that person as much as I can.

These people are performers and are women pretending to be men. I started researching more and more and I watched some YouTube videos about drag kings. I was thankful that there is so much online right now and I could easily get a lot of knowledge about this. I followed a few people on Instagram to find out what they are up to. They were doing interviews and makeup tutorials. I was curious how they prepared for their shows. I ordered a wig for myself, like I wore in the film. I thought if I could do this kind of role now, maybe I can audition for something like this if it comes up again,” says  Ágota Dunai.

Not all aspects of an actor’s career are glamorous. She appeared in two episodes of the television series Gólkirályság.

She talks about one scene in particular, “The series is about football players. I was the girlfriend of a French football player. I appear in two (episodes) and in one of them I have a casual morning and the other time was in the evening and my character was in the bathtub. He had an important phone call. I was in the bathtub for five or six hours (yes, you read that correctly). I was soaking in the bathtub for so, so long. Even in the beginning the crew were joking for you it is the best you just have to relax in the bathtub. I had a glass of wine with me and I tried my best to keep my legs up. Of course I was wearing a bikini. After a while the water kept getting cold and my skin was drying out. My hands looked horrible (she is looking at her hand). They kept changing the water. At first, it was quite hot, then it was cold and they made it hot again.”

This seemed like an appropriate time to ask Ágota Dunai if while she is being filmed if she gets a sense for the take that the director is going to use.

“They do a really good job of making them look the same, so I don’t think I can tell.

When they tell me do it a little bit like this or a little bit like that and an instruction to do something a little bit different then I understand why we have to do more takes. Then they say that was great, let’s do it again then when they ask me to do the same thing, I don’t really understand why we have to do it again when I am doing the exact same thing,” she says.

When she watches  herself in a film or on television, we wondered what is going through her mind and she tells us she looks for if her facial expressions match what her character  is thinking. 

Ever the chameleon Ágota Dunai, plays a real estate agent in the British film Haar (2023), which was shot in Budapest, “The film is about an actress who is shooting a film in Hungary. She is filming here, but she is from the U.S., but she cannot go back, because of different situations. She really wants to go back, because her father is very sick. Her struggle is she is stuck here, because of work. She had a relationship, but it didn’t really work out.

My role is a real estate agent who rents her (the actress) a flat. 

It (the film) was mainly in English, but there were a lot of Hungarian actors who played Hungarian (characters), but I think eighty percent of the film was in English,” she says, before telling us about the friend she made on set, “ The rabbit was really cute. There was an animal trainer whose job it is to bring different animals to film sets. She brought this totally black rabbit, and it was super soft and very calm. It was chilling on the sofa pretty well the whole time. Every break I went there (her eyes are sparkling) and I pet and played with it. The rabbit didn’t do that much; it would just sit there and move its nose. I loved this rabbit,” she says with a big smile.  

Ah we wish we knew more about hairstyling, so we could explain properly to you the reader the transformation that Ágota Dunai went through for a small role in television series Amadeus, an account of the life of Mozart. Her hair was piled up really high, as was the custom of the day and of course she was in a period costume.

“Some people go to wigs, but my hair is kind of long, so the way they did it, they pull it all up and (she describes how they pulled her hair up from the sides and built it on top of her head and then put more hair on top of that.

It was filmed one and one-half years ago, late 2024. This is a British series about Mozart that was filmed in Hungary. I was in one scene when Mozart got married and after that they had a party. He starts to flirt with other girls and then catches me and he plays the piano while I am sitting on his lap. That was my scene for this one.

Usually we have a dress rehearsal, before we do the actual shooting and they measure me up. They already have an idea of how my character needs to look. They have the dress ready and they fix it on me, so it looks nice. The waist was really (tight) and I could not bend in it, so I had to (stand and sit) straight all day. It was a really heavy and stiff dress, but it was really pretty. I think the hair took more time, because it had to go through such a process to make it stay up like that. I was in the hair place for four and one-half hours. When I (was finished) my hair was really crazy, curly and bushy (she laughs). I did not have much makeup. They just put white powder on my face and some blush,” she recalls.

We have known Ágota Dunai for a few years now and it seems every time we talk with her; she is busier than the last time, so we wondered what is contributing to this.

“I think one thing that really helps is connections. When I started out, I really didn’t have any connections. None of my family is into filming or acting. I started from zero. I did acting school and then I applied to everything. Now that I have been working on things, people tell me they liked working with me and then they speak about me to others. Often now when I get auditions, it is not because I applied, but they tell me I heard about you from this or that and they call me for the audition or for the role.

If I have just a small part they (directors) usually just say alright that was good. Right now, I was doing a commercial here and they kept praising me (huge smile) and telling me it was great. That felt good. Also, I am doing another Hungarian independent film now and it is the same director as in Black Forest. I have pretty well known him since I was a teenager. He likes to tell me if I need to do more or sometimes, he tells me to try different ways. When it is good, he doesn’t give me too much praise he just says that was good. When he doesn’t like something, he just says you have to do it like this.

I like to be directed, so if they want me to do it a different way they tell me what they want to see. I think for most actors and people it feels good to be praised, so it makes me happy when they compliment me.

I would like to believe that I am getting better. I have tried out more characters compared to the beginning I am definitely more confident when I go for auditions, but nervousness still comes back sometimes,” Ágota Dunai says.  

Is there a dream role out there or a type of character you would like to play?

“I would really like to play a pirate. Growing up I really loved The Pirates of the Caribbean and I really like pirate stories and films. I think it would be so cool to become one of them. It makes me happy with how many different lives and characters I can try out.”

Ágota Dunai say a lot of productions are now being filmed in Hungary, so it presents more opportunities for her and one has to think it is only a matter of time, before international casting directors and film directors come knocking on her door.

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This interview by Joe Montague  originally published July 31st 2026 and is protected by copyright © and is the property of Riveting Riffs Magazine All Rights Reserved.  All photos and artwork are the the property of  Agota Dunai unless otherwise noted and all  are protected by copyright © All Rights Reserved. This interview may not be reproduced in print or on the internet or through any other means without the written permission of Riveting Riffs Magazine.