Sophie Thatcher

29:03Yeah, you go back to it and you're like, oh my God, I can see clearly now. Does your taste now like run, obviously you've got highbrow. Do you got lowbrow too? Like, does it run the gamut? Oh yeah. What's an example of lowbrow? Lowbrow, I mean, I've been through phases, especially while I'm shooting TV, I can only watch reality TV. 90 Day Fiance has taken over much of my life. And I'm not regretful of it because you get to learn a lot about different cultures and different countries. It's like crazy circumstances. God, I really want to watch Below Deck. That's what everyone keeps saying to me.

29:43I haven't, but I know people are obsessed. People are obsessed. Summer House, everyone's talking. They're talking about the Summer House now. Summer House, what's that? It's another reality. Yeah, I just find watching actors while I'm acting, I'm like, oh. I need a disconnect even if it's reality TV and people are still acting and it's all meta it's like it's a different kind of disconnect where it's like I can't relate to that set it's a different set life where I'm like I'm not thinking about how everything is so technical because it's so hard to get out of my head when I'm watching TV while I'm doing TV but I mean B movies too I love yeah what would constitute a b-movie like modern b-movies or like old school what are what are modern there's nothing like what does that what does that mean that's a good question yeah i don't even know everything's diy it's like would a modern b-movie be on your phone right what does that mean um modern my favorite i always reference this um hell comes to frocktown i don't know educate see again you better you're more sophisticated than me it's a if you look up photos of that it's i'm obsessed with like crazy bad masks sure um and really just when it's really like as tacky as possible this isn't a b movie but um peter jackson's meet the feebles is like adjacent to that and anything within that realm is like yeah god that's my sweet spot it's there's like a heartfelt quality to it because you know that everyone is pouring their blood sweat and sold into it for shit product, but not for Meet the Feebles.

31:25Meet the Feebles is genius. Well, that's why one of my all-time favorite films is Ed Wood, which is this ode to people that were so devoted to the craft that they weren't capable of making great art, but they were just trying. They loved it. But they just hold everything into it, and you feel it, and that's what, you know, it's so incredibly charming It's charming when I find that people are doing practical effects. It's just like an easier way to immerse yourself. And I hope we can lean back into that, but I doubt that. I just saw a movie this morning with a ton of prosthetics. I mean, it's a ginormous movie, but it's like the Supergirl movie.

32:05Like I will say, it's a lot of prosthetics. I did enjoy it. Yeah, yeah. Sweet. Oh, that's sick. Yeah. And you can tell it feels different. A hundred percent. Even if it looks bad, it's like, there's like a nostalgia to it as well. You're destined for a Guillermo moment at some point, right? It's got to happen. One of the first Pan's Labyrinth scarred me. I walked in when I was seven years old to this scene. That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot for a 30-year-old. But then it scarred me in such a way. And then I was like, I learned, I was obsessed with waltzes. and then I learned the Pan's Labyrinth theme song on piano and I would just play it over and over, being scarred, thinking about that and so tortured.

32:54Explains a lot. But God, that movie is genius. I recently rewatched it and was like, this holds up so well. That segues it too. I always like talking to people about the other films they saw a little bit too young that scarred them. So Pan's Labyrinth is one. What are any other examples of a movie you're like, oh in retrospect why was i watching this at that age that jump out um well definitely so many 20 days later which i bring up a lot because i was like you were through your zombie face that spawned the zombie movies of course it was the best of us yeah um i don't know i had like i had like i was very scared of everyone watches goblet of fire harry potter but the something about the like offness within the cgi of the mermaids oh my god i still look at it i'm like because the cgi is so bad there's this uncanny element to it that i captured as a kid that i was like oh something's wrong i don't know what it is so bad what the hell and i that would scar me and my older sister would torment me and just like point her phone to me and it was just the mermaid and that um I think I have a thing for mermaids.

34:12Mermen for Cabin in the Woods. Right. You know, that last set. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the merman. Yeah, merman. He's like flopping. And I watched that. That was like 14 or something. It was horrifying. Yeah, yeah. I think I'm discovering something right now. Yeah, we're all discovering at the same time together.

34:35What about, okay, oh my God. We can talk just about reference points, but we'll talk about career stuff too. But I do want to... Yeah, no, I'm like, this is not... But I do, before we get to your actual work, gaming also, you're a huge... We're a huge gamer? I'm not a good gamer. What does that mean? You don't have to be like... I'm just... Who's testing you? It takes me a really long time and I cheat through everything, but you have to cheat. You have to watch the walkthroughs. What's the biggest time suck game of your illustrious... Well, Sims without a doubt. I was talking about that earlier today because I had to talk with Hideo Kojima and doing a talk with him was just so...

35:15I was like, you're a god. You're a god to us. Anything I say, I'm scared. He's so charming. That, I mean, Silent Hill 2, I think, has the most heart for me. Silent Hill 2, there's a bunch of games that I want to play. I have a PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, a Wii. I think my Xbox is broken. I have like three different sets of an Oculus. You're equipped. You've got options. Like three switches. It's good to have backups just in case. The thing is I don't game that much. I don't anymore. Okay. But it used to be such a huge part of my childhood that just having it in my house and seeing it. It's comfort. Yeah.

35:59Safe place. If I'm ever going through a low point, I'm just going to immerse myself into this. Your 14 gaming consoles.

36:08It's now, I mean, that's the new IP, as you well know. It's like, it's horror, but also it is like now Hollywood has figured out, oh, gaming is bigger than Hollywood. Oh, yeah. I mean, Ella doing the Fallout. Yeah. Yeah. I brought her to my apartment the first season because I was, I tried, well, I had a night where I brought all the Yellow Jackets girls over and I was like, I'm going to create every one of you on Sims. It took hours and people got so bored because I was trying to get them right. You have a call time in an hour, Sophie. I didn't know. Like, Sophie, what are you doing? I was like, no.

36:41Got to get your nose right. And I did it. and then I tried to create Ella on Fallout and that was her first introduction and she was like turn it off it's scary graphics and I was like that's fair it is like that uncanny specifically Fallout New Vegas has that like where it's like kind of realistic but not it's of that era where it's like it's just uncanny and then Fallout 3 is like really good graphics especially I remember when that came out I was like these are the best graphics of all time I'm excited that like, you know, again, I sound old when I say this, but like the new generation of filmmakers, like people like Zack Greger doing Resident Evil.

37:22It's like, oh, yeah, let the. Oh, my God. Resident Evil is. Yeah. Let them do their spin on. And it can be so. I mean, video games are so incredibly cinematic. And Hideo Kojima is the greatest example of that. Where he's using also like the best of the best actors and the best of the best actors want to work with him. And I want to work with him, too. More Happy Say Confused coming up.

38:10First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Croc store today. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

38:48Okay, so you're also an actor, we should mention. You acted in films and TV. I'm not just like into pop culture nerdy stuff. This acting gig's going pretty well. Talk to me a little bit about the early days of kind of when you went pro, as it were. You're doing a lot of theater early on. Yeah. But what do you remember? What kind of auditions were you going up for early? were you typecast right from the start like what do you remember it took me a while to figure out my typecasting and now i'm real in it um kidding um when i was younger i was like trying to fit myself into i was the musical theater girl that wore the jazz hand shirts and tap dance and was you know listening to really like dark music but you know like balancing all these things and I would always go on these Disney auditions.

39:39And I remember getting a callback for one of them and I lied to everyone in my sixth grade class being like, I'm going to be on Disney Channel, you guys. Because I wanted to be popular and I was popular for two days. And then they realized, they kept asking and I was like, I have nothing to give you. I don't know. And they saw. It's illegal. It's really, it's, it's, it's. I can't, I signed an MBA. I can't tell you. So, but that, it was just like feeling really out of place. and like I was always too off. And then I think doing Prospect was like a good, because I was like, I mean I've always kind of played Outcast and they saw that it wasn't like a put on, it was like oh finally I can like play myself or even lean into the offness of everything.

40:28What do you remember of like hitting those first marks, being in front of a camera of a professional production. No, I'm not even joking. Like Chicago Med and Chicago PD. I was like, I don't think I can deliver lines in front of camera. It was so scary because I grew up in theater and having to do one line and having to prove yourself within that two seconds, specifically within procedural TV. And I still find that when I have these one liners, even with the all jackets the other day, I was like, I can't do it. I have one, like I need a scene to get into it. Interesting. It feels like commercial act.

41:02It feels like not real. So that I, yeah, my heart was just like racing. And it was like the first couple of days in prospect, I was like, I don't think I can do it. And then I did it. And it just became so natural that I was like, it's not more exciting than theater. I mean, I haven't done theater in so long. And I think it would be so interesting to go back with this experience now. I think I've kind of regressed in ways within technicality. I need to work on my diction. I need to not, no more vocal fry. But I would love to go back to that, but it was so, it was like a block when I was first on screen.

41:53It was like I couldn't connect. The camera was like the devil. And now it's this weird thing now too. where sometimes I'll go to set now and I'll be anxious for a bit and then I'll come to my closeup and I'll be like, oh, I can breathe now because I'm in another character and the camera sees me. Interesting. It's like a friend. Yeah, got to make friends with the camera. It can't be an enemy. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's going to be a long shoot otherwise. And I don't know how that transition happened, but I feel so much more comfortable when it's on my closeup. Yeah. When it's right here because I can't lie and once I can just fully go into that headspace that Sophie's gone, something else comes up.

42:34Yeah, I'm always fascinated by the sort of actors I've talked to over the years that have such a high BS detector that they're their own toughest critic. Kristen Stewart, infamously, I always bring her up. She's always told me and others, it's like she'll just cut in the middle of a take if she just feels like it's... You can't continue. It's like, no, this is not real. And I'm learning that too because it's like there's guilt that comes with that where you're like, oh God, I'm holding up production. And specifically within TV when it's so fast moving, it's like, I can't really do that. But, oh God, when you just have to call cut.

43:07I mean, absolutely. And I'm learning that and I'm finally starting to speak up for myself because you disengage so quickly when something is off or when you're distracted. So you alluded to this earlier, but like you're kind of in the homestretch for Yellow Jackets, which is obviously such a pivot, is gonna always be a pivotal part of your life, a chunk of your life that you were returning to for about five, six years, right? What do you, I mean, like when you think back to Sophie that was on set those first few days, like were you a different actor, you think? Were you a different human being?

43:38Like was it? It's a good question. Yes and no. I think, I think I'm still pretty much the same. I think I'm lighter now. I think I carried a lot of darkness or wanted to carry a lot of darkness and I was very obsessed with perception when I was younger. And it almost feels, you brought this up earlier, but when I was younger, I was trying to be older and now I'm kind of just like, I can be my age because I'm not ashamed of my age. It was the shame within being young and feeling like I'd lived so many lives. I was like, no, you don't see. I'm 12, but I've lived another life before. I value, I have perspective.

44:22And I'm like, I grew up the internet. Like, I know so much. I packed a lot in. I packed a lot going on up here. And now it's like I let go of all of that. And I feel much more myself now. Yeah. And I feel much more, I think, when I was like my early days on being on camera, I was just obsessed with being just natural. Just be natural. Just throw it away. I was like taking all these on-camera classes. And it was horrendous when you'd get notes. so just throw it away and I was like god what a terrible note um but that's kind of what was going on in my mind where I was like just you know it's funny it's like coming from theater too it like makes sense to have that mentality but it's not something that's going to create for a dynamic or interesting performance and it was just like me early in my career thinking that way well it's this contradiction of like actively trying to be natural as opposed to just being being natural you know what I mean like think about it just be natural be natural oh and then it's you know it's like robotic and it's tilted yeah exactly yeah I mean acting is like thinking about directing and thinking about giving notes is so incredibly convoluted and challenging but I think you know the best directors know how to uplift somebody and Yeah, know how much to give and not too much.

45:46It's so psychological. It's so, there's so much to it that I would, I know everybody says this, but I would love to just like dive into that just to like learn because I help friends with self-tapes and I know that's so incredibly different, but you're giving people notes. I love giving, I love being bussy. So I'm like, this would be great. so one day maybe what do you think the I mean the one-two punch especially of heretic and companion well I think both in the calendar last year was I mean that's a meaningful career kind of like yeah it was things to prove what is that you know done for you from a career perspective from a goals perspective you know I know you love the genre space you love horror but you obviously You want to have a well-rounded career.

46:40You want to do all the things. Where are you at in terms of prioritizing? It's interesting. I'm at a really strange point in my career where it's like both of those characters, they were slightly different, but still in the same world. And I know that I want my goal is to be a character actor. And people say that, but I want to play something that's so oppositional to who I am and because people are seeing, and then even her private hell, it's like a heightened, far more tortured version of, like he was kind of basing certain elements off of me or even stylistically, and a lot of people can't look past that.

47:25And I'm, it's this hard point in my career where I'm balancing being a blank slate and having personality and making music and making art and putting out the art that you like and having taste. And I'm trying to separate the two and I'm trying to figure out how to separate the two, but a lot of people can't look past it. And I'm just asking people to dive a little deeper and to search for something deeper and look for something else because it's not even wanting to prove myself. It's just to prove to myself that I just want to have fun and be somebody else for a second and not always, always be in like the darkest.

48:12Sure. You're due for that? I don't think I've ever had a, well, I did a film called Peaches that was quite light, and I was like, this is the most challenging experience of my life because it's so light. But I need to get used to that so I can, you know, not just always live in such a, because I'm not like that in real life. Right. But something about on camera, it's like I, it's a place that I immediately turn to because it feels comfortable and it feels cathartic because the camera sees me. Yeah. And letting go those emotion on camera, it's like, that's a therapy session right there. Therapy for free.

48:51Yeah, for free. They're actually paying me for it. And the camera's like. I see you. I hear you. I see you. And here's your check. This is great. Well, maybe you're due for the Seussical, the musical. I was in Seussical. I know that's why I say that. You did your research. I mean, of course you did. There was a picture of me with like, I played a monkey in it. And I had the Paul Frank shirt. God, what a good show. I'm saying it might be time for a musical theater return. No, I have that side. I have that goofy side. Juliet's doing, I just saw Juliet do Rocky Horror here in town. So cool. Right?

49:31Is she still doing it? I think so. I saw it a couple weeks ago. I mean, Rocky Horror is the best of the best. The best. I love a dark musical, A Little Shop, A Sweeney Todd, A... Don't even get me started on Sweeney Todd. Like, Sweeney Todd is my childhood. Sondheim is the reason why I'm acting. Sondheim is life. Sondheim is everything. What's the Sondheim of choice? Is it Sweeney Todd? That's a really hard question. Oh, God, it's changing. It depends on what point I'm at in my life emotionally because every musical is so emotional. Merrily We Roll Along is probably the most heartfelt for me. Into the Woods was, like, one of the first shows I saw.

50:20My older sister was in it, and I saw her do that. But I've actually never seen Sunday in the Park with George, but one day. All of everything, everything. And where are you at? The only franchise-y kind of thing you've done in Star Wars, you did Book of Boba Fett. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would imagine you're on a short list of like, Marvel would kill to have you be an X-Men. Like, there's the fan art. I've seen the Rogue stuff. I don't know if you've seen that out there. I see it with my tag. Yeah, and I'm like, interesting. Where are you at on that kind of idea? I'm open if it's a director that's down to collaborate and listen to me and I'm not just, you know, I want to have a voice.

51:07And I know that's absolutely possible and people do that all the time. But I would just want to make sure it's the right story being told, especially if it's such a huge franchise. It's like that itself has such an impact. and I want to make sure it's the right story and it's, you know, not just spreading like violence and shock value, but something meaningful. Yeah. Does X-Men have any meaning for you as a kid? Did you watch the cartoon or anything? It's the blue people. There's my answer. Sarah, I'm going to get a lot of hate on that one. No, you're fine. No, like Jennifer Lawrence in like blue.

51:49She was Mystique. You got that. Mystique. Yes. Sorry. Okay. Hannah Paquin was rogue back in the day. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm open. She's open. Yes. Always. I'm open to anything. It is that interesting point. I mean, imagine for the first time in recent years where like you have choice as an actor and it's bizarre. So I haven't done like a self tape in a while and I'm like, I'm starting to feel like a imposter or something or like I forgot how to act or something because I haven't done a self tape. But is that weird? The first couple of times you had to say no to something? like this that goes against everything guilt guilt so much guilt but um you know ultimately again it's about finding the right collaborator because that's what you take with you for the rest of your life were you are you a good i don't know if they do even conventional auditions anymore it's all self-tapes like did you ever was i good at auditioning i slayed did you really i mean i was like i was a kid from chicago and i would go in the room and something would again and it was like being in front of, it just made sense.

52:51Being just in front of a couple of people, I was like, oh God, I can finally turn on and be myself. But not be something else. And then you lost that within self tapes. I feel like for a while I wasn't booking when I was a certain age. Because you have to be in the room and flip that switch. Wait, is it true? I think I read somewhere that you used to almost manifest by writing before an audition. Psycho, yeah. What was it? You were like, I'm gonna get this kind of thing? or like the specific memory that pops up in my head was writing down everything that was going to happen the audition writing down the lyrics of the song writing down what people were like writing down how everything was going to go out and then at the end ending with like i don't know how many i forgot how many times but like i'm going to book this i'm going to book this and and then at least doing like three pages of writing that.

53:40It was psycho. I mean, it was like some slight OCD possibly stuff. And I just had a lot of stuff like that where I was like, if I don't do this, I'm gonna fail. But it was like me trying to gain power and confidence. Control over the situation. It was control and it helped. It was placebo. Yeah. Okay, so coming up, you still have a couple of months you said left to shoot Yellow Jackets. are you emotionally prepared for what's gonna be a the end yeah have you read the end do you know um i'm yo lori just like makes me emotional thinking about it because it was it's such a huge part of my life and it's like what most people know me for so it kind of feels like letting go of like a really integral important part of yourself and like what will i feel empty I want to I really want to explore different options so I think that's the biggest feeling that like there's opportunity and freedom and space and I have time like I have a whole year like instead of half a year or a couple months I have a whole year to do weird projects and take a lot of swings and do that and not just choose like two movies a year and then yellow jackets whatever can fit in so that feels that's really exciting but it's going to be so emotional when we end i already know that melanie is planning a karaoke party and we've been doing a lot of karaoke karaoke's life um so i'm excited for that and i'm going to be planning my songs for then she's an angel on earth melanie linsky come on oh my god the sweetest and so talented and just so cool like oh my talking about like someone that has good music taste.

55:32We've been trying to like get these band t-shirts on the show. We got this band, The Bats, on the show. She has such good taste and immediately, I was in the Pavement music video and she was like, Pavement! And I was like, fellow indie head! Are you going to be working Jennifer Kent? Is that movie hopefully happening? Oh my gosh, she's amazing. Also talking about good, I know it like doesn't, taste means a lot of things but you can see within And it like goes deeper when someone has good taste and especially music. Music says everything about someone. And she like all we do is just send each other music.

56:10And it's really it's like it's beautiful. Nice. Okay. We end Happy Second Fuse every time with a profoundly random questions. You ready, Sophie? Yes. I mean, it's already been random, to be honest. But we'll go even deeper. Dogs or cats? Huh. It's okay. Dogs. dogs I grew up with dogs I grew up with cocker spaniels and I think about that game on the you probably didn't grow up with this nintan dogs yes um with a z and I had a cocker spaniel named Annie on that and like she's just forever in my head and I'm gonna get a king cavalier cocker spaniel and name her Annie um because I sent her to the pet hotel and I didn't realize that the pet hotel was like sending your dog to heaven oh and I never got her back so I'm sorry I do something about that.

56:58There you go. And you had Sawyer named after the characters in Lost, right? Sawyer, you do. Yeah. Yeah. All the Cocker Spaniels in my life. Sawyer. Yeah. I'll get, I'll just have a bunch of Cocker Spaniels, like the whitest dog out there for sure. What do you collect? I guess band t-shirts. Okay. Not to be. I'm trying to think of like something. Monkey. Monkey. I'm kind of fizzling out of the monkey phase, but I'm obsessed with orangutans. You're collecting orangutans? Just actual monkeys? Yeah, not actual. No, no, no, no, no, no. They're stuffed animals. Okay. And as I was moving, I was like, oh, my God.

57:43Like, I have, like, a whole shelf. I probably have, like, 30 plush toys. Because any time I see one, I'm like, it's going to meet. Come home with me. You're coming home with me. Meet your new friends. so that and panty shirts and gaming consoles we covered this but favorite video game of all time it's The Sims Sims has my heart Sims has my heart the Dakota Johnson memorial question she asked me this I ask everybody would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one being your butt one being your butt that's like that's not that bad I want to be able to talk. Connect. Sensible lady. What's the wallpaper on your phone?

58:29Elliot Smith. On brand. I'm so easy to fucking predict. Who's the last actor you were mistaken for? Sophie Turner. Because Sophie Thatcher or Sophie Turner and she's on Game of Thrones and that's huge. And then I met her one day and I was like, whoa. It's like that Spider-Man gamer. I mean, we don't look alike, but similar names-ish. Did she get the reverse? Did she not, did she got in Sophie Thash? Hell no, no. I don't know. What's the worst note a director has ever given you?

59:08Oh, shit. I'm like, I don't want to like off somebody. You don't want to name names. You can just say what the actual note is. The worst note. Well, it's always like, this is so basic, but throw it away. I would get a note and it really threw me off and it was um um be 5 a.m sophie which means like no thoughts um so that threw me off it wasn't a bad note but it would just always throw me off and I'd be like what does that mean you're like no thoughts none okay let me not think let me be stupid um so that was really hard yeah when it gets like intellect or like um abstract like that Yeah, sometimes you want practical.

59:51Just like... Sometimes I'm like, just tell me something specific. Yeah. On the nose. I would prefer that. Faster, slower. Because I'm an actor. Right. And in the spirit of Happy Second Fused, who's an actor who always makes you happy? An actor who always... Philip Seymour Hoffman. Love it. Movie that makes you sad? I'm going to say Wings of Desire. And I always bring that up. But it makes me devastated. A little Fim Bender's action, right? Oh, he was at Cannes and I really wanted to meet him, but I didn't. One day. And finally, food that makes you confused. You don't get it. Black licorice. Oh.

1:00:32Disgusting. It's kind of like a cilantro thing for some people. It's just... Black licorice is like the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted in my life. No, I feel like very strongly about it. I can tell. No, absolutely not. Okay. We won't make you... Not even confused. it's not confused that was like pure hatred happy sad hatred my new spin off show Sophie thanks for taking the time today this was a blast congratulations on everything that's come and I'm so excited to tag along future years so nice of you getting started same and so ends another edition of happy sad confused remember to review rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts I'm a big podcast person.

1:01:19I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't supposed to do this by Josh.

1:01:26This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro plans.