Interview (Part 4): 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 4 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, 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.

Scott: Finn does go through a psychological journey of sorts. He has a character arc, and that idea of external validation, which is so prominent in the experience of an adolescent of trying to find yourself and finding yourself reflected in all the different people that you’re with.

Oswalda has this comment to him. First she says, “You’re selfish.” Then she says, “No, that’s not it. You’re naive. You thought it’d all be better if you had this or that. If you dated this girl. Were friends with that guy, but that’s just not true. It’s never true.”

Honestly, not to get too heavy with it, but it reminds me Joseph Campbell talking about the outer journey is really an inner journey. Does that resonate with you in terms of Finn?

Sophia: Yeah, absolutely. That resonates for me with Finn’s emotional journey of, grass is always greener, and wishful thinking that drives you crazy. Like, “Oh, well, if I was friends with that person, then my life would be better.”

There are a lot of people who are of the mindset that — if I had this, then I would be happy. Or if I had that, then I’d be happy. But I feel like at the end of the day, a lot of times people do get whatever it is they’re chasing, and it doesn’t make them happier. It changes circumstances maybe momentarily and then you realize you’re exactly the same as you were. True happiness is never the result of external validation, it comes from within.

Scott: That brings to mind another movie reference: “The Wizard of Oz.”

Sophia: That too. Yes. I love “The Wizard of Oz.” Yeah, exactly.

Scott: Comes back, now he’s home. He had to go through that journey in order to return to this place and feel comfortable there, just like Dorothy, right?

Sophia: Yeah. I think it’s also so essential for Finn’s emotional journey that he learns that the bully is operating out of a place of insecurity. Because Finn himself is insecure. He realizes everyone has problems, he’s not unique in his lack of confidence. By the way, once you’re an adult looking back at it, it’s “Of course, that kid who bullied everyone was insecure,” or “Of course, they were going through something emotionally.” At the time when you’re in high school, it’s not your mindset, at least it wasn’t mine.

That was definitely essential for him to learn so he could stand up to the bully. But also, I didn’t want him to bully the bully and be like, “I’m not the loser you are.”

I wanted to be more like, “Oh, I have compassion for you. I understand why you’re acting that way.”

Scott: That’s empathy.

Sophia: That felt very true to the books, too. I feel like the books are very empathetic even with Voldemort, you see why he became that way. The books are also very empathetic to Draco Malfoy and his journey.

Scott: Let’s talk about the scripting process because I’m sure everybody reading this interview will be like, “I could knock out a script in two and a half weeks that amuses me.”

[laughter]

Scott: Was it literally starting from scratch and two and a half weeks later you find this thing, or had you been noodling with it or…?

Sophia: No, it’s not like it was two weeks from conception to finished product. I read this quote somewhere and I can’t remember exactly, but it was a writer who was saying, essentially, a lot of the writing is done in your thoughts. By the time you sit down and put pen to paper, it all spills out. I totally agree with that.

My manager John Zaozirny is amazing and we worked super closely through the whole process. So we’d been discussing the script, going back and forth, and talking about comps. On my own time, I was thinking a lot about it, like it consumed my thoughts. I had an outline. Then I sat down, opened Final Draft, and was like, “OK, I need to actually just sit down and do it.” Then I was off to the races. I had never written that fast in my life. I was writing all day and all night for two, maybe two and a half weeks. I was having amazing snacks.

[laughter]

Sophia: Previous to that, I had rewatched all the Harry Potter movies and reread a bunch of the books. Also, I had read “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” and watched all the comp movies.

But I think the real reason I was able to write this script so quickly, beyond the prep work that went into it, was because it was something I connected with so much, on such a deep level. It was a beloved source material that I knew inside and out. I had prepared for 25 years for that moment. I knew everything that there was to know about Harry Potter.

Also, when you run into a wall when you’re writing something in the Harry Potter universe, you can google anything. There’s a million blogs with timelines of the events of the books, which helped me realize things like: “No, no, no. This could never happen because Harry Potter competed in the Triwizard Tournament in ’94 and not ‘93.” There’s huge Harry Potter fandoms and websites and resources online.

Scott: Let’s jump to the morning of December 13th, 2021, which was when the annual Black List rolled out. Were you tracking that?

Sophia: I had strongly hoped and wished, and prayed and pleaded in my own thoughts. I was like, “Oh, my gosh. Wouldn’t that be amazing?” but I was like, “No, that would just…I can’t even hope for that. That’s crazy.” For years, I’ve always read the Black List scripts and been a big fan and follower of the Black List. So the thought of being included on the Black List was just crazy to me.

Even now, I have no words for it. It was like the craziest moment. I was so excited. John called me that morning and said, “You’re on the Black List,” and I literally…I couldn’t even form words. Words couldn’t come out of my mouth. Even now, I’m getting tongue‑tied. I was so, so excited.

Scott: Has it meant anything to you professionally?

Sophia: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It really was so awesome. I got so many meetings from it.

Also, people liking the script and messaging me about it meant a lot, because I was like, “Oh, my gosh. What? People are reading my script?!…” I don’t know. It was so wild. I saw there was a Reddit thread about it, which I thought was so exciting, because I was like, “I’ve made it to Reddit.”

[laughter]

Sophia: That was a cool moment. I also got to meet a bunch of fellow Bellevue clients who were also on the Black List. John’s company Bellevue Productions had the most scripts on the Black List this year of any management company.

Scott: It was eight or nine, I think.

Sophia: We did “Scripts & Scribes.” We did a big livestream, and I knew a few of the people.

My friend Chris Wu was also on the Black List and did the livestream. He was writing on “Hawaii Five‑0” while I was a PA on “MacGyver”. We would hang out a lot. He’s so talented and so cool. The livestream was really awesome, because I got to put names and faces to the other writers whose scripts I had read and loved. It was great to hear about their process and all that stuff. [laughs] I’m not super eloquent. But it was a moment that I’ll never forget. It was the best ever.

Professionally, the Black List translated into a ton of meetings. Soon after, I got staffed on Starz’s HIGHTOWN, which was amazing. Plus, my friends from USC took me out for drinks and we celebrated. It was just really nice.

Scott: I’m so happy to hear that. Particularly landing the gig, because that’s super important. The Black List is nice, but a gig is a gig, you know? I’m always happy when I find out that people have actually got employment in the biz…

Sophia: Yeah, getting staffed — there were no words but, “Wow.” I was truly speechless. All the effort and ever since I was a kid, trying really hard to be a writer. And then to be on the Black List then get staffed writing on a TV show, it was just the most amazing feeling.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Sophia takes on some screenwriting craft questions.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, go here.

Part 3, 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.