Interview (Part 3): 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 3 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Sophia discusses some of the movies that inspired her in writing “A Hufflepuff Love Story” including Back to the Future, Groundhog Day, and Heathers.

Scott: There’s a lot of movie associations that popped into mind when I’m reading the script. I’m just curious. You actually mentioned several of them in the script, too.

One of them, of course, “Back to the Future,” where a character goes back in time. That’s a central thesis of your story, Finn keeps going back in time trying to rectify things, and work his way up to social stratification in Hogwarts. Where did that part come from?

Sophia: I think it’s a funny idea of like, “If I hadn’t done this one tiny thing that seemed extremely minuscule at the time, my life could have been completely different for better or worse,” but usually, it’s fun to think about for the better.

I think it’s fun to play around with that, and I could see someone driving themselves crazy if they had done this tiny thing that usually would not matter. Except for the fact that it did this one tiny instance, which is tripping over something, and then Ron Weasley sits with Harry Potter and you don’t, despite the fact that you look exactly like Ron and could have been Ron if you just hadn’t made this stupid mistake years ago. I don’t know. I just thought that was funny.

Scott: Perhaps, in your life, somebody caught their heel, allowing you to get to the elevator with that dude from “MacGyver.”

Sophia: [laughs] Oh, my God.

Scott: Then, there’s a “Groundhog Day” dynamic too, because he keeps repeating…Well, it’s a different process, but there are moments there. For example, there’s a funny little bit of business toward the end of the script where he said, “I’m going to read your mind,” but he’s actually got this knowledge that he’s learned up to that point. It’s like “Groundhog Day.”

Sophia: Totally. Before I wrote the script, I watched Groundhog Day. Obviously, I revisited Back to the Future. I watched “The Butterfly Effect” with Ashton Kutcher. I watched quite a few movies that were similar either in concept or in tone. I watched a bunch of high school movies, too, and rom‑coms, because the rom‑com genre was actually new to me for this script. I hadn’t written at a straight‑up rom‑com before. Groundhog Day was a big influence, of course. It’s such a good movie.

Scott: You mentioned John Hughes, I was reminded of a movie that he did that a lot of people don’t reference nowadays, “Some Kind of Wonderful.”

Sophia: I watched “Some Kind of Wonderful,” as a comp for this. I think it is interesting, because obviously when you’re an adult, it’s accepted that people have different interests, people present differently and it’s no big deal. But when you’re in high school, differences are less accepted. It’s like, if you step out of line and do something that we the majority of people in this high school deem as weird — then, you’re a weirdo. “Some Kind of Wonderful” shows this dynamic really well and that’s definitely something that inspired me.

Scott: Then, you mentioned “She’s All That.” I think I remember the guy makes a bet with someone to turn some nerdy girl into some hot girl.

Sophia: Yeah. There are a lot of movies I referenced in the script.

Scott: You also mentioned “Heathers?”

Sophia: Yeah. I love “Heathers.”

Scott: What were you thinking in there? That speaks about the tone of your humor. That’s a decision. That’s a choice in the road, am I going to have them inside this insular world? Or is part of the humor going to be that we’re going to bring in references from our contemporary, real‑world?

Sophia: I think it’s funny that they are in the wizarding world which is so distinct from the muggle world, and I wanted to highlight the differences in world a bit. Muggles, we like TV, and we like movies and stuff. That’s totally foreign to them. They never would’ve heard of any of the movies that are constantly referenced in the muggle world.

It wouldn’t really be that weird if you were in a muggle high school, and you knew Back To The Future or whatever. But in the wizarding world, it is so bizarre and odd. That gave me a chuckle. I feel like sometimes when I write, I like to amuse myself. I just think certain things are so random and funny. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this person did that? Usually, it’s not as hilarious or funny as it is in my own mind [laughter].

Scott: You also make another choice, talking about things like body odor issues, acne, and orthodontic headgear. That’s a choice too where you were looking into the underbelly of what it might have been like to be in Hogwarts. Was that just again to amuse yourself?

Sophia: No. I felt like it was important to show the other side of Hogwarts. The upstairs‑downstairs dynamic that would definitely be there. We saw Harry Potter’s experience already. In the books and films, he is painted as an outcast — and he is in a lot of ways.

He’s an orphan who grew up in the muggle world so he feels very alienated. Plus the pressures of being “The Boy Who Lived”. But when we’ve seen his journey, we haven’t seen him deal with “real world” teen issues like acne, braces, stuff like that, the less glamorous part of being a teen. So part of the fun of is doing a reality check of what being a teenager is actually like, whether you’re at Hogwarts or not. Some things are universal.

Another part of the fun of this project, was to get into the mindset of: what if Harry Potter is actually the most popular kid at Hogwarts. He’s the boy who lived. He’s super famous, he’s super rich. Everyone wants to know him.

I had a lot of fun writing the opposite, where you’re just regular Joe in Hogwarts. You’re a teenager so you have acne. Even though you’re in this amazing, fantastical environment you still have to brush your teeth which is so mundane. None of that is ever talked about in the Harry Potter books. What if you’re an average kid who has to deal with all the average teenager stuff but you happen to be in this amazing setting?

Scott: I’m fascinated to hear about your thoughts on this, because whenever you’re writing a story, especially as a screenwriter, there’s that question: how you’re going to find the story structure. It seems like you’ve got a pretty natural one here.

Once you have the idea of like, “OK, he’s going to go back in time, and then he’s going to come back and now he’s in Ravenclaw.” That’s not where he wants to go. He’s going to go back in time. That idea of jumping back, if I’m not mistaken it’s four trips or something?

Sophia: Yeah, every house. He works his way through every single house. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, finally Gryffindor. He realized that being in Gryffindor didn’t solve his problems — the truth is, he needs to solve them from within rather than with external validation.

Scott: Then to explore how everybody’s reacting to him, because this is your butterfly effect. Every time he comes back, everything’s changed.

Sophia: It was interesting also to tap into the teenager in me and be like, “Wow, I always thought I was so weird, because of insert X, Y, or Z thing about me. The truth is, maybe I wasn’t so weird.

If I had just been in a different friend group or if I had worn different clothing or whatever, I wouldn’t have felt that way, because I would have had external reassurance instead.” That was part of Finn’s discovery as he works through the different houses.

Because early on, with him, it’s like: he thinks he’s a loser and therefore he’s losing. But along the journey he learns that the grass isn’t always greener. “It’s A Wonderful Life” comes to mind. The tragedy of Finn at the start is that he feels he has the potential to be more than he is, and have more than he does — and because he’s fixating on that, he’s missing out on all the things that make his life wonderful, like his amazing friends and his relationship with Oswalda.

Tomorrow in Part 4, Sophia and I cover everything from Joseph Campbell to what it felt like when she learned her script A Hufflepuff Story had made the 2021 Black List.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, 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.