Entertainment Spotlight: Sofia Wylie, Shook
If you’ve watched the Disney Channel recently, you probably recognize actress, singer, and dancer Sofia Wylie. She starred as Buffy Driscoll on the hit series Andi Mack for three seasons, plays the lead in Shook, the Disney Channel’s first original scripted series made exclusively for release on YouTube, and and will star in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series for Disney+, which is set to debut later this year. On the film side, she recently starred in Back Of The Net, which will premiere on Disney Channel later this month. This year, Wylie launched AIFOS, a production company that focuses on optioning and developing material that highlights strong female storylines that celebrate a diversity of cultures and experiences. Outside of acting and producing, she also writes and performs her own music and choreographs dance pieces for various platforms. Sofia took a few minutes out of her packed schedule to answer some of our questions. Check it out:
How would you describe Shook to a five year old?
Shook is about a 15 year old girl named Mia and the struggles she deals with at home, with her family, at school, and with dance. She loves dance with all of her heart, but it was something that was shared between her and her dad. Ever since her dad passed away she hasn’t been able to love it as much because it reminds her of her dad, which makes her sad. So she doesn’t want to open up about her sadness so she just pretends everything is fine all the time. Shook is about her journey to figure out how to finally deal with losing her dad.
What’s the funniest photo that you have on your phone right now (either share or describe it)?
This isn’t even a very funny photo but I just love these girls so much!! Sneak peek at some hair and makeup looks for Shook!
Do you have any interesting behind the scenes facts about the making of Shook?
It’s shot in locations all around Los Angeles! We shot in a real home for Mia’s house and Fredgy’s house. We shot in the arts district for all of the dance crew scenes and at an all boys school for the school scenes. This definitely made the vibe of the show feel a lot more grounded and real, because it was all shot in places that people are actually living.
If you were to come up with an alternate title for Shook, what would it be?
Body Language. I think this could be an alternate title for school because my character, Mia, struggles the most with communication. Dance is really the only way she knows and feels comfortable with expressing herself.
How did you prepare to play the role of Mia in Shook?
We had two weeks of scene study and dance rehearsals which gave me a lot of insight into who Mia is, who she has relationships with, and what those relationships mean to her. Knowing as much about her and her life, so that when I am on set I can truly just know her as well as I know myself. Putting myself in Mia’s shoes and fully becoming her became very difficult the farther into the story we got. This is because truly feeling the loss of her father as much as I could imagine someone would feel broke my heart. I felt all of that pain and grief. It was a struggle but to know that I could be helping people who are struggling with overcoming adversity like Mia is, made it all so worth it.
Do you have a dream role that you’d like to play one day?
Yes!!! I would love to be part of a historical drama, play a mermaid, superhero, or Eliza in Hamilton! All of these things characters or genres are my favorites!!! It would be an absolute dream to be part of a world like this.
Thanks so much, Sofia! Shook premieres on September 28th.
