Sophia Anne Caruso is the star of The School for Good and Evil, but one could say that she’s been a star for years, since she was only nine.
Performing her way from her hometown of Spokane, Washington to New York City, the actress collected a handful of onstage and onscreen credits before she even turned 16. Sophia’s talent as a dynamic stage performer earned her a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her role as Iris in The Nether and critical acclaim for her hypnotizing presence as Lydia in Broadway’s Beetlejuice: The Musical. Now, the 21-year-old is bringing that talent to the screen for one of her first major film roles as Sophie in the Netflix fantasy film The School for Good and Evil.
Based on the New York Times bestselling series by Soman Chainani, The School for Good and Evil centers on two childhood best friends Sophie and Agatha (played by Sofia Wylie). The duo’s lives are turned upside down when they’re kidnapped from their village and sent to an enchanted institution. At the academy, aspiring heroes and villains are trained to become legendary enough for their own fairytales, and ultimately protect the balance of good and evil.
The regally-dressed students in the School for Good, nicknamed the “Evers,” learn the power of smiling and finding true love’s kiss, while the witchy punk-goth “Nevers” learn how to look menacing and incite chaos.
An avid reader of fairy tales, Sophia’s character Sophie has long dreamt of becoming a princess. Sophie saw attending the school as her ticket out of her “mediocre” provincial village life. But when she winds up being placed in the School for Evil instead of Good, she embarks on a thorny journey of self-discovery. Refusing to accept her new status, Sophie relentlessly tries to prove that she’s a princess, not a witch. But she eventually learns she doesn’t have to be a princess to get what she wants.
“I was excited by [Sophie]... the variety, all of the colors that there is to play in her,” Sophia tells Teen Vogue, admitting that she’d probably be a Never in real life. “When I first looked at the character description, I was like, ‘Hm, princess. Let me read this script.’ And I was like, ‘Oh no, she's not just a princess, she's also kind of a devil.’”
Throughout the fim, Sophia’s character teeters between protagonist and antagonist as she tries to take unapologetic reign of her own destiny. Sophie effectively enters her villain era — if that’s what it truly means to forge your own path.
“I think it can be difficult, especially for young women, not knowing exactly who you are and not knowing or not feeling comfortable pushing the boundaries as a young woman, but I think Sophie very clearly does that,” says Sophia. “She pushes everybody. She just crosses every boundary.”
Sophie’s redemptive qualities, from standing up for her outcast best friend to empowering her Never peers, is what makes her an unexpected antihero. According to Sophia, Sophie’s journey across the spectrum good and evil teaches audiences a valuable lesson.
“There's a little bit of both [good and evil] in all of us, and that's okay,” she says. “You don't have to be perfect [or] really good all of the time, because that's just not how humans work. It's not how people work.”
Her complex character arc also shows young women that they don’t have to conform. Like her character, Sophia doesn’t conform to a label either.
“With my fashion choices, with my music, or the work I choose, I want to push boundaries and just be ever-changing and reinventing myself all the time, because it's how you figure out who you are,” she says. “You experiment in all the different versions of yourself. There's a million versions of me and who I am. I'm not just one thing. I'm not completely solved in who I am, [I’m still] figuring that out. I always say to myself, ‘We're all just growing ourselves up all the time.’ We're all still realizing who we are… ever-changing and morphing, and I'm always reinventing myself in search of self.”
Throughout the film, Sophie’s wickedly stylish costumes signaled each stage of her search of self. Sophia explains that the costume her character wears at the start of the film, a quilted patchwork village dress, represents “making the most of what she has.” “She’s trying her hardest,” says Sophia. Once the character unwillingly enters the School for Evil, however, she wears what Sophia calls a “sack dress.”
“[It’s] actually one of my favorite costumes, because I love the ropes that she adds. They symbolize being bound, but it's also like she's trying to make a fashion statement with it, which is so cool… I love that costume, because it's just so badass.”
While Sophie eventually becomes a powerhouse in her own right, Sophia notes that she was surrounded by real-life powerhouses on set. Sophia’s co-stars included high-profile actors like Michelle Yeoh, Charlize Theron, and Kerry Washington. “The women on set really held it together,” says Sophia. “It was really awesome to be in a female-forward story, a story about young girls, and also be surrounded by so many well-established actresses and strong women.”
Ultimately, the truest love in the film is not between a princess and prince but friends Agatha and Sophie — two strong women themselves. Sophie and Agatha formed their friendship at an early age, but behind the scenes, Sophia says her bond with Sofia began with a chemistry test over Zoom. While on set, they deepened their connection by hanging out during lunch breaks and sharing a “mutual love of chocolate.” Soon enough, Sophia and Sofia became real-life friends.
“I love what the girls represent,” Sophia says of Sophie and Aggie. “I hope that it can set a positive example by the end of the movie for girls and their friendships.”
Overall, Sophia aims to continue inspiring girls with her portrayal of realistic young women. “I suppose my whole life I'm going to be looking to play authentic women and represent what that is versus the Hollywood version of what a woman or a teenage girl is,” she says. “I'm sort of anti-that. I'm pro-real-girls and representing them, because that's what the female demographic [wants] and that's what I want to put forward… I hope that it inspires them and they feel like they can relate to it.”
Sophia isn’t entering her villain era — she’s entering her transformation era, inspiring all those watching at home to live our most authentic lives. Good, evil, and everything in between.