Interview (Part 1): Sophia Lopez

My interview with 2021 Black List writer for her script A Hufflepuff Love Story.

Sophia Lopez wrote the original screenplay “A Hufflepuff Love Story” which landed on the 2021 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Sophia about her creative background, her script, the craft of screenwriting, and what making the annual Black List has meant to her.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Sophia talks about how she became interested in writing and went to film school to pursue her dream of working in film and TV.

Scott Myers: Congratulations, Sophia, making the 2021 Black List. I want to get to that in a bit. First, let’s go all the way back. How did you end up becoming interested in screenwriting?

Sophia Lopez: I’ve really loved TV and movies for as long as I could remember. I did this thing as a kid, where I would re-watch the same movie every day for weeks and even months — I did it with The Wizard of Oz and SPICE WORLD (the Spice Girls movie). I think being so immersed in these stories translated into me naturally wanting to tell my own. So, I would play with my Barbies for hours, coming up with my own plotlines.

Scott: I had a friend who wrote two Barbie books.

Sophia: No way.

Scott: This was a zillion years ago. It was very funny. Barbie Goes to Outer Space, that was one of them. They told her, “She can’t ever wear a helmet because that’s going to mess up her hair.”

[laughter]

Scott: That’s how protective they were of the Barbie image. I thought that was so funny.

Sophia: That is funny. I had all of the Barbie merch, I watched all of the Barbie movies, I was completely obsessed.

Then, after Barbie, it became all about animation for me. That became my big thing. I got into Miyazaki’s movies, I think I was in second grade when I saw “Spirited Away.” That was a huge eye‑opener for me. It changed everything. It made me realize the power film has to just totally transport you into another world. So, then it all became about trying to get into my dream school, USC Film.

Scott: So, you go to USC film school. I’m assuming that that’s where you were writing screenplays and learning the craft.

Sophia: I was a screenwriting major, and it was so awesome. I met so many of my dearest friends, and the professors were so inspiring to me because they were also writers. They were giving personal advice about how to deal with starting out in the industry, but also, obviously, writing advice. It was a nice combination of actually learning three‑act structure and stuff like that, but also learning to cope, I guess, with a writing career.

Scott: They call it the USC Mafia, they’ve got all these connections in Hollywood. They bring a bunch of people in, film and TV professionals, all the time to speak, so it figures to be quite a film school experience.

Sophia: Oh, my God. It was amazing. If I could go back and do it over and over again like it was a Groundhogs Day except for four years [laughs] on a loop, and I wake up at the end of the fourth year and started over again, I would do that.

Scott: How did you then transition into working in Hollywood?

Sophia: Over the summer breaks from USC, I would intern at “Hawaii Five‑0” in their writer’s room. I loved it. It was the first time I had gotten exposed to a writer’s room of a working TV show. It was also another huge moment for me, an eye‑opening thing, and I loved it. I wanted to be around it all the time.

During the last week of the internship, the summer going into my senior year, I found myself in the elevator with the showrunner. It was going to be a quick ride between the first floor and the fourth floor where his office was.

I figured, “It’s the last week of my internship, and I’m out of here on Friday anyway, so what’s the harm in pitching an idea? If he likes it, then great. If not, then I’m embarrassed, but I have a cool story.” Then, it turned out he liked it [laughs] and they bought the story off of me. Then, they invited me back to be their PA after graduation.

Scott: You literally did an elevator pitch?

Sophia: Yeah, and it was the most nerve-wracking experience of my life…Even thinking about it now, my palms are sweating. It made me really, really nervous and stressed. But I knew I would hate myself if I didn’t do it, so I had to.

Scott: That’s great, Sophia. Now you give me total evidence that I can use with my students. I say to them, “You’ve got to be able to pitch your story in a lot of different ways including the elevator pitch.”

Sophia: It’s so true! Over the time I’d been interning, I’d watched the writers coming up with their episodes, from the initial idea to the pitch, then later the outline and the script. It was about a 22‑episode season, so I got the opportunity to witness a lot of pitches for a lot of episodes. I was observing how they all formulated their pitches, and it was so inspiring to me that they had both the creativity to come up with an idea, as well as the organization/structure to pitch it in a way that made it easy for listeners to follow along. I was coming up with some fragments on the side in my little notebook, and had some loose ideas for pitches. Then, when I was in the elevator with the showrunner, I was like, “I should definitely just try.”

It was the showrunner of “MacGyver,” “Magnum P.I.,” and “Hawaii Five‑0.” So, I was interning at the “Hawaii Five‑0” writers room the first two summers and then after that, they brought on MacGyver and Magnum P.I. I was rotating between the different sister shows.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Sophia talks about what inspired her to write A Hufflepuff Love Story and her love for the Harry Potter series.

Sophia is repped by Verve Talent and Literary Agency and Bellevue Productions.

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.