[Editor’s note: The following interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023.]
Sophia Lillis was just 14 years old when she signed on for her first major role, playing Beverly Marsh, the heart of the so-called Losers of Stephen King’s seminal horror tome “It,” in Andy Muschietti’s two-film take on the material. It was the kind of star-making gig many other performers would be happy to rest on, well, forever. But eight years on from that first feature, Lillis is eager to keep building her resume, moving away from “child actress” into just “actress” territory.
It helps that Lillis was choosy even when she was a “child actress,” taking on the “It” films, the HBO Gillian Flynn miniseries “Sharp Objects,” the underseen Netflix series “I Am Not Okay with This,” and even one spin as Nancy Drew and another as Gretel (of “Hansel & Gretel” fame). Now aged 21, Lillis has about a dozen onscreen credits to her name, but they all belie her interest in mixing things up. Think of it this way: Ask Lillis how she’s spending her summer, and the first thing she mentions is taking more acting classes. She’s only getting started.
In 2023 alone, Lillis has walked that walk: starring in everything from unexpected hit “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (she played a resistance-minded druid), Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” (as a young science wonk competing at an annual, adorable convention for Junior Stargazers), and her latest, Dustin Guy Defa’s family dramedy “The Adults.” The title? Yes, yes, Lillis gets it, too: She’s surely an “adult” now, but she’s the first one to mention how much more growing she wants to do.
The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
IndieWire: You’re best known to most audiences for your roles in big blockbusters, like the “It” films and “Dungeons & Dragons.” At this stage of your career, what was the appeal of doing something smaller with “The Adults”?
Sophia Lillis: I don’t really focus too much on whether a movie is big or small. I do think it’s harder to find a lot of indie films right now. I feel like either people are investing in really big, big movies like Marvel and stuff like that, which is not a bad thing, or stuff that really goes under the radar.
I do feel like indie and big movies are very different in the sense that they focus on different things. Big movies, they have a lot of money, so they focus on different things that they can focus on; with indie films, I think we have what we are given and we use that to the best of our advantage. I think that adds something to a film that you don’t usually see in bigger films, and there is a sense of real connection.
Dustin is a great, great director and he really does focus on the connections between two different people and just the focus on that relationship. It’s something that I haven’t really seen to this extent before in another project. I like working on projects just in general, but I think it’s stuff like “The Adults” that make me happy to be an actor.
We do see films about the relationships between two siblings, but to see a dynamic where it’s three is rare. I’m an only child, so whenever I see this stuff, I love it, because I’m just like, “I’ve never experienced this.” I want to know what it’s like.
I think [Dustin] did it really accurately. I don’t usually read reviews and stuff like that, but I was on Letterboxd, and it did pop up, but I had to look. There’s some people who get it, so people who don’t, and that’s for any project. But I think a lot of people who really did get it were people who had siblings and they’re like, “This is accurate.” You may not guess it, but this is pretty accurate.
I have a sibling myself, actually, I have a twin brother. He’s in the other room and he’s home from college for the summer. It is something that you don’t really see often, the three siblings thing, and not only that, it almost feels [like a] coming-of-age [film], even though they’re all three adults. They’re still dealing with this loss and still dealing with this loss of childhood, and seeing that when they’re adults and trying to go through this process, it’s rare. I haven’t seen this a lot.
Another thing that I enjoyed about it is, it’s such a simple plot. He doesn’t add so much to it. It’s not like, “And then this big event happens and then the world shifts,” because he doesn’t need that to make a story. I think what people really enjoyed about it is that it’s something that you don’t see anymore. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but you don’t really see a simple plot anymore. You focus on one plot and focus on the process of trying to go back to your roots and go back to your family and just trying to connect with them, that’s all that needs to happen. That’s enough there to write a movie.
How did you bond with co-stars Michael [Cera] and Hannah [Gross] to form this very believable sibling bond?
We did rehearsals in Michael’s backyard, just to kind of develop the voices and the dancing [the siblings perform when they are together], because a lot of the songs were made up by Dustin, and some of them by Michael and Hannah, and I did some choreography for some of the dances.
It just allowed us to get to know each other, to have two weeks or so to prep and talk to each other and then hang out with each other pretty much almost every single day and not having a lot of other people around. They’re also so easy to talk to. They’re the nicest, kindest, down-to-earth people you probably would ever meet, and so it was so easy getting to know them.
You play the youngest sibling, the baby of the family, which is funny, because we have seen you on screen for so long, but I think many people still think of you as being much younger than you are. Do you feel like people often think that you’re still 15?
Yeah, and I still look 15 in some ways. If you do a project when you are a kid in this industry, you’re going to always be known as a kid, no matter what you do. I feel like I’m not going to force anything. It helps to look younger than you are, but it is also a process between being a “child actress” and being just an actress. Take the child part out of there. It’s like, when does that become the other?
It’s also a totally different environment. [As an adult], when you go for a role, you’re not against these other children actors, you’re against everyone. Everyone is going for this role, 25-year-olds, 30-year-olds to 16-year-olds and stuff like that. It just gets wider and a little bit more complicated, and so it is tough to try to go into the older category and try to establish yourself as an actress and not as a “child actress.”
I guess I’m still sort of in the process of doing that, but I think “The Adults” really, really helped. I am still young and I was playing my age in “The Adults,” and even though she’s technically more or less an adult, she’s still in the process of learning. You can tell she’s sort of still a child in her siblings’ eyes. And in a way, that’s kind of where I am right now too. It was really nice to play my age, I think it really was a refresh. It was nice not trying to make my voice a little bit higher or act [with] a little bit more energy.
I watched “The Adults” and “Asteroid City,” in which you play a young teenager, in the same week, and I was just like, “Wait, no, I know she’s an adult. Don’t try to pull one over on me.” How different were your experiences on those two films?
Honestly, I can’t really remember half of [making “Asteroid City”] because it was crazy. It was insane. It was like you never knew when you were working. There was so many people everywhere, it was kind of like revolving doors of just one person going in, one person going out, whispers of, “Oh, have you heard this dude’s here?” That was a bit of a fever dream. I didn’t have a very big role, but I had to be there the whole time regardless. So it was just a lot of, “When am I working and what am I doing when I get there?”
I’ve never had that experience before, but it was very different. I’m glad I’ve had that experience, I always like to experience new directors who work in different ways. Hopefully, with enough experience and time and doing all of that stuff, there’s going to be a point where I’m like, “I’ve seen it all. I’ve done it all. I know what to do.” I can pinpoint some things when I get to a set, where I’m like, “The director is working this certain way, and I’ve done that before and this character is sort of like this other character, so I know what to do now.” Wes Anderson is very specific [as a director] for an actor. That was very different from what I was used to. But now that I’ve done it, I know what that’s like.
This year, you also starred in “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” which ending up being a big if unexpected hit. When did you realize it was going to be something special and different than perhaps what people thought they’d get from another “D&D” film?
I knew there was a big “D&D” demographic, I knew there was a big fan base, but I also liked “D&D,” so I was like, “Oh, cool, glad they’re making a ‘D&D’ film.” I do think though, that people didn’t know it was funny, which is surprising to me. I don’t know why, but a lot of people that I talked to, family and friends and stuff like that, they were like, “Oh, we haven’t seen it. We don’t really know ‘D&D.’” And I’m like, “Well…”
It has the feeling of a big movie and stuff like that, but it had elements in there that were actually kind of almost like “Monty Python,” that kind of funny. There are bits in there that are funny and are unique, and I really enjoyed that about it. It made it kind of a standalone movie. Usually when you watch Marvel films, it’s like, “And this happened, and I have to watch the next two films in order to get the third one,” that kind of thing.
There’s so many films lately where it’s like, “It’s part one of two. Hope you like this one, and you can come back in a year and a half and see how it ends.” And I’m just like, “I can’t do this anymore.”
I know.
Which, of course, leads me to the inevitable question: Do you think there will be more “Dungeons & Dragons” movies?
I don’t know, I hope so. It was fun to work on, and maybe they’ll make another one, but I think they made a good one by itself. But you know as much as I do, to be honest. I wish I knew more, but as for now, I think it’s kind of up in the air.
A lot of things are up in the air right now … it is very odd, because I’m attached to a few projects, but none of them have funding.
That said, how are you planning on spending your summer?
I’m thinking of taking some acting classes this year. I’ve been working out more to look older. Trying to learn Italian, though it’s not working so well. I like to take the time off when I can to try to get better. I feel like acting’s very much kind of a muscle that can often be forgotten about, and once you start working and you work throughout the year, the last project that you do always feels like the one you did the best on. I tried out theater last year and I really enjoyed it. Maybe I’ll take some more theater classes or do some more read-throughs and stuff like that.
You’ve been in the public eye since you were a young teenager. Do you get recognized a lot?
I think it kind of comes in waves. I think if a project comes out, there’s a short bit where people are like, “Oh, right, that girl from eight years ago, I remember her. She has another thing. That’s crazy, she’s still here.” And then I do get recognized for a short bit and then it kind of dwindles down again. Also, when my hair gets a specific way when I work out or when I get really sweaty or when I’m outside, it gets Annie-esque ringlets, which is very Beverly. So I think people are like, “Oh, I recognize her,” [laughs] but I’ve never been swarmed, that’s for sure.
Is there anything specifically that you want to do that you haven’t done yet?
I don’t know, I always say the fun thing about acting is that you find projects that you never thought would ever be, topics you never knew about or thought about. [You get this] insight into someone else’s mind and you’re like, “Oh, shoot, I would love to do that.” I always feel when people ask this question, I never know. I never want to focus on one specific thing because then I could close off the doors to so many other opportunities.
Then again, if I had to choose, I would like to play a villain one day. I feel like I always play the hero or the misunderstood girl, which is fine, but she’s the heroine of the story or she helps people or something like that. I think it would be a lot of fun … to really play something on the opposite side of the spectrum. I don’t think anyone’s seen me do that before, so it’d be funny to see how people would react to it, if they ever saw that. I think that’s what I would like to do, just play a real asshole. I want to be a real asshole, a real not-good person!
A Variance Films release, “The Adults” will be in select theaters on Friday, August 18.
