Interview (Part 2): 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 2 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Sophia talks about what inspired her to write A Hufflepuff Love Story and her love for the Harry Potter series.

Scott: Let’s talk about your script, “A Hufflepuff Love Story,” which is just a hoot and, as I said earlier, it made the Black List in 2021. Here’s a plot summary:

“Unpopular Hogwarts student, Finn, blames everything bad in his life on being sorted into Hufflepuff rather than Gryffindor with Harry Potter and the cool kids. When he discovers a chance to go back in time and fix that, he takes it only to discover things aren’t quite as simple as he’d imagined.”

I’m imagining that along with “Barbie,” at some point, you segued over to “Harry Potter.”

Sophia: Big time. My earliest memories are reading the books, watching the movies. I remember I saw “Prisoner of Azkaban” in theaters three times. That’s my favorite movie in the whole series even though I love them all. That’s definitely my bias of which one I prefer, because it’s so moody and a little sinister, which I like.

I couldn’t get enough of Harry Potter as a kid. Literally, I would re‑watch it, and then when the last book came out and I got it right away, I cried as I read it because it was over. I was obsessed with all of them. I know that whole world inside and out. I love it.

Scott: Is Prisoner of Azkaban your favorite book, too?

Sophia: I think that for the books, “The Goblet of Fire” is my favorite — because it’s when the series shifts tonally from a younger children’s book where the feel is “wonder” and “magical adventure” to a darker, more mature vibe that takes on more serious events and themes. Of course, that kicks off when Cedric Diggory is murdered by Voldemort at the end of Goblet of Fire. I remember reading that and being shaken because while death had always been an element at play in the books, with Harry’s parents being dead, we’d never seen a character that we knew murdered in cold blood like that. It was chilling and a turn that I never saw coming — and it really stayed with me.

Scott: Are you a fan of Harry Potter fan fiction?

Sophia: I like anything that can explain why Harry and Hermione didn’t end up together.

[laughter]

Sophia: Anything like that, I am into.

Scott: I mean, what’s up with that?

Sophia: I tried my best to give my explanation in the script. Let’s say Harry and Hermione had gotten together early on. They would have been too compatible — and too similar — to the point that the relationship would’ve happened sooner and been more combustible than Hermione and Ron’s relationship ever was. They would’ve broken up before the fourth year, so they would’ve broken up before she could save him in the Triwizard Tournament (in Book 4). That was my best reasoning, where it wouldn’t work for a butterfly effect reason, but I don’t know.

Scott: This project is not a send‑up. It’s not a parody, but it is having fun with the franchise.

Sophia: Totally. Personally, I’m a Hufflepuff. I’ve taken the quiz. When I was younger and I was like, “I think I’m a Hufflepuff,” you get this reaction: “Sucks for you. I’m a Gryffindor.”

I really felt that weird shame in the back of my mind about being a Hufflepuff, and it’s not even a real thing. So it was fun to take it a step further and be like, “What if that actually was a real thing and I did go to Hogwarts?” What if, as a Hufflepuff, everyone wrote me off and pitied me? The Slytherins are the cool kids. Gryffindor was the jocks. Ravenclaws the brainiacs. I’m just like, the “etc.” I’m parceled off with the people who are looked at as, “Oh, you guys are good friends. That’s your good trait.” “You’re a nice, friendly person, but you’re not smart, cool or athletic. You have no distinguishing traits.”

Scott: Of course, that sets up nicely for the kind of traditional underdog story, which is quite popular.

Sophia: Yeah. Also, I like to look at it as a high school movie, because I’m a big fan of high school movies. I love Mean Girls. I love “10 Things I Hate About You.” The classic high school films, like a John Hughes movie. The question was, “What would that movie look like if it took place in Hogwarts?”

Scott: Let’s jump into some of these characters. The Protagonist is Finn Fletcher. He looks like Ron Weasley. How did that character come into existence?

Sophia: I feel like there’s something really funny about, “Oh, you look so much like someone” except you’re the unpopular version. You’re the knockoff version of some important and respected person. Something about that is really interesting, and tragically funny to me.

I have a sister who’s a model. I love my sister. I’m her biggest fan. She’s a model and I’m a writer. There’s a big difference in those two professions. One’s a little bit more schmucky than the other. [laughs] I can relate to Finn in that way where sometimes, my mom will be with her friends who are all like, “Oh my gosh, your daughter’s a model.” Then I’m the one who shows up and I’m in my sweatpants and my hoodie with a stain on it. Though I’ve never felt, like, victimized by this dynamic, I definitely feel like I could get into that emotionality of being the underwhelming side of the coin, the lesser version of something. Of course, I just took a tiny kernel of my own experience, then saturated it and expanded on it to shade in Finn’s psychology. My question to myself as a writer was, what if that dynamic dominated your life? What if you were so close yet so far away from what you aspire to?

Scott: It reminded me when I was first reading the script, I was going to life of Brian, from the “Monty Python” where this character is born the same day as Jesus. Got a parallel track.

Sophia: Yeah!

Scott: Then you’ve got Lavender Brown who is the object of Finn’s affection.

Sophia: Lavender is a real character from the books. I was having fun with the idea of Lavender and writing to her voice as it is in the books, because it is a fun voice to write.

Scott: Then there is Oswalda Dos Santos…

Sophia: She was my own creation. She was so much fun to write.

Scott: How did she come into existence?

Sophia: I like the idea of this outcast girl, like the Julia Stiles character in 10 Things I Hate About You, but she’s at Hogwarts.

I’m Mexican-American, and I thought it’d be great to have this Mexican female character where you have this backstory that would explain why she’s in England, on a completely different continent than where she’s from. What’s the story there? Her parental unit, did they kick her across the world, because they were so embarrassed of her? In this case, yeah, they did.

I had broad strokes at first of what I thought would be a character I would like to see in the Harry Potter universe. I filled in the blanks, and I had a lot of fun doing it.

Scott: You’ve got that romantic triangle. Was that something that you had in your mind pretty much up front?

Sophia: Yeah. Every high school movie needs some romance! At its core, this story is about Finn learning to appreciate what he does have instead of fixating on what he doesn’t — and also, accepting himself. One of the measures of his progress in this journey is his relationship with Oswalda. When they meet, he is immediately interested in her, but at that point, he’s obsessed with the life he doesn’t have — he wants so badly to be popular. And Oswalda is a social outcast. So it’s impossible for him to be with her, because he would have to get over his desire to be popular and accept that Hogwarts’ rigid social norms mean nothing. But later his journey towards self-acceptance culminates with him proudly professing his love for Oswalda to all who will listen at a high school dance.

What was interesting to me about Oswalda, is that it’s not like she’d be so bizarre or unattractive in the real world. It’s more so in this specific rigid, social‑coded place, which is literally sorted into houses, she bucks the norm and is therefore a pariah. It’s not that she’s so bizarre or weird. It’s more that she’s just not eager to please in the same way that Finn is. Oswalda actually enjoys and relishes being weird, which, of course, would be embarrassing to someone who… is desperate to be like Ron Weasley, liked and popular, and Harry Potter’s friend, and whatever. I always like the trope of the two completely opposite people who have completely conflicting agendas coming together. She’s his worst nightmare and yet, they’re perfect for each other. I guess that’s a really roundabout way of answering the question.

Scott: I’ve got to say, as soon as I met her in your script, I’m like, “OK, that’s who I’d go after if I was in high school.”

[laughter]

Sophia: She’s my favorite character. I love her. She was the most fun to write.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Sophia discusses some of the movies that inspired her in writing “A Hufflepuff Love Story” including Back to the Future, Groundhog Day, and Heathers.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

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

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