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Long before Sophie Thatcher faced off against the boogeyman and a monologuing Hugh Grant, she found herself surrounded by zombies.
The 24-year-old star of “Heretic,” “The Boogeyman” and “Yellowjackets” has emerged as a full-fledged scream queen. Her success in her favorite genre was foreshadowed when she was a child and would make homemade horror films with her twin sister, Ellie.
Thatcher recalls filming a zombie movie at her 10th birthday party, assigning roles to all her friends, dressing them in costumes, and covering them in fake blood. The title was “Propagation,” though she jokes she “didn’t even know what the word meant” at the time. She still has the movie on her Google Drive and screened it for her “Yellowjackets” co-stars.
“They probably expected it from me,” she says, laughing.
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Thatcher continues her love affair with the genre in the bloody, twist-filled horror thriller “Companion” (in theaters Friday), in which she plays Iris, a young woman who accompanies her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) on a weekend trip with his friends. But Iris’ reality is shattered after she discovers she is actually a companion robot.
Going into the film, Thatcher was scared she “wouldn’t be able to” pull off the complicated role, which required that Iris be neither too human nor too robotic. She found the performance by adjusting her voice and posture and focusing her attention on others in a way that hinted she was programmed to please. Thatcher’s background in dance also came in handy for Iris’ physicality, as this taught her how to have an “awareness within your body.”
“You can sense there’s an offness to her from the very beginning, even with the voice,” she says. “There’s a charm and there’s warmth, but it’s a little too smooth.”
But while Iris may not be human, Thatcher identified with her on a number of levels.
“I felt her anxieties,” she says. “I felt her insecurity. I felt her desperate need to please. I feel that as an actor and as a person. I’ve been there in relationships. Immediately, as soon as I read the script, I saw myself in her.”
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Thatcher describes “Companion” as a breakup story − one that feels particularly timely with its ideas about misogyny and control. She found it “very cathartic” to play a female character fighting for bodily autonomy.
“It’s about finding yourself after getting lost in a toxic relationship,” she says. “But the themes of control are very relevant today because it feels like, as a woman, you don’t really have control over your own body.”
The plot about an AI robot comes at a period of uncertainty about how artificial intelligence will affect Hollywood. But “Companion” suggests any technology is “not inherently good or bad,” Thatcher says. “It really just depends on what us humans do with it.”
Ironically, filming was paused by the Hollywood actors strike where AI was a major issue, what the actress calls a “slap of reality.”
Sophie Thatcher recalls how she fell in love with acting, teases ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3
Thatcher’s acting journey began when she was a kid growing up in Chicago and watched her older sister Emma perform in plays. “I just thought it was exciting and such a fun way to engage people,” she says. “It was the first time that I felt like I really connected with something.”
She soon began acting herself and by age 11 landed her first professional gig performing in the play “The Secret Garden.” The experience left her feeling exhilarated and inspired. “It was like chasing a high after that,” she says.
Thatcher thought she would remain in theater. But she booked a part on TV’s “Chicago P.D” in 2016 and five years later debuted in her breakout role as young Natalie on “Yellowjackets,” the character played by Juliette Lewis as an adult.
Season 2 of the Showtime series ended (spoiler alert!) with adult Natalie’s death, though because the show balances two timelines, Thatcher will continue to play her as a teenager.
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Not having her adult counterpart around was a big change for Thatcher filming Season 3.
“There was freedom, but there was also pressure because I wanted the character to stand alone and be interesting on her own, and I almost didn’t believe myself in that way,” she says.
But Season 3 “felt for me, as a viewer, empty watching it without” the adult Nat, she says. “I miss her dearly.”
The Season 3 premiere has “lightness that I didn’t expect,” the actress teases, adding that this “might be the healthiest we see Natalie.” Still, she warns the character “doesn’t have a lot going on in the first couple of episodes.”
Outside of acting, Thatcher is also a musician. She released her EP “Pivot & Scrape” last year and has been featured on the soundtracks of her last two movies, covering “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” for “Heretic,” in which she played a kidnapped Mormon missionary. She also contributed vocals for Iris’ theme in “Companion.”
While shooting “Companion,” Thatcher brought her keyboard and would unwind at the end of difficult shooting days by working on new music. She also grounded herself by FaceTiming her twin, which helped remind her “that I’m a human outside of work.”
Though she’s often associated with horror, Thatcher is next looking for a project in a “really grounded setting, where it’s not reliant on anything scary or anything gory.” She would also love to return to theater.
Her other criteria for selecting new roles might as well be a line uttered by Iris in “Companion”: “I don’t want to play any victims,” Thatcher stresses.
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