Sofia Carson is Ready to Offer A “Classic Timeless Love Story” with ‘My Oxford Year’

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AUDIENCES MAY HAVE Seen Sofia Carson Fall in Love Onscreen in Roles Such As Netflix’s Purple Hearts and the Life Listbut her new film Is Offering A Revival of the Traditional Classic Love Story.

“There’s A CERTAIN OF LEVEL OF ESCAPISM THAT WITH FALLING IN LOVE WITH A LOVE STORY THAT IS So Beautify to Be Able to Offer, and this One in Particular Just Felt Timeles, Cars The Hollywood Reporter. “IT FELT LIKE IT HAD BEEN A WHILE SINCE I HAD SEEN A CLASSIC AND Timeless Love Story Brought to Life for this Generation.”

That love story is My Oxford Year, DIRECTED BY IIN MORRIS AND STARRING CARSON (WHO ALSO exec Produce) and Queen Charlotte Star Corey Mylchreest. The Film, Based on the 2018 Book by Julia Wheelan, Center on Carson’s Anna, An Ambitious Young American Woman Who Sets out for Oxford University to Fulfill A LifeLong Dream. Thought she have her life planned, Things took an unsexpectioned Turn WHEN Sheets Local and Her Professor Jamie (Played by Mylchreest). They may find a Connection Through Literature and Poetry But Soon Their UnFORSEEN BOND ALTters Both of Their Lives.

“IT’S LIKE TWO PEOPLE SEACH Other for Who Are Are for the Very First Time,“ Carson Says. “I THINK THAT’S ONE MOST BEAUTIFUL Parts of this Film is that they Fall in Love Through Poetry. They Fall in Love Through Literature.”

Amid The Film’s Release, Carson Spoke with Thr About Bringing A New Love Story Onscreen, The Film’s Emocial Turn and Heps Her Character Lets Young Women “Feel Represented.”

What was it about this story that interested you and Made you want to be a part of bringing it to life?

So shortly after Purple Hearts Came Out, I Met with Marty Bowen and Laura Quicksilver at Temple Hill, and I, of Course, Was Very Familiar with Their Work. They’ve Brough to Life Some of the Mosst Beloved Love Stories of Our Time from Twilight to The Fault in Our Stars. And so in our Meeting, Marty Pitched Wanting to Bring this Story to Life with Me as A Producer and to Star As Anna. I was so moved by that of course. By the Moment and Read the Script, It Was Just the Easiest Yes. I Fell So Instantly in Love With Anna and Jamie’s Love Story and with Their World of Poetry and Literature, and It Was Just a Beauty Love Story, The Kind of Love that Changes you. I Felt Sure that Marty and Temple Hill Were The Partners to Bring this to Life, and It’s Been A Beautify Journey Ever Since.

You’ve Become Quite The Presance on Netflix Having Starred in Multiple Films, In Particular Romance Stories. What is it about the romance genre that appeals to you and attracted you to want to teell these stories?

I was always writing love songs years before i had every even been been close to being in love. I Always Gravitated Towards Love and Romance. I Think Also As a Consumer, There’s A Certain Level of Escapism that Comes with Falling in Love, with A Love Story Is So BeautyFul to Be Able to Offer that, and this in. It Felt Like A Classic, and It Felt Like It Had Been A White Since and Had Seen A Classic and Timeless Love Story Brought to Life for this Generation. And that Really Excited Me!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE The NECESITIES TO MAKE A ROMANCE FILM STAND OUT AND BE A Timeless Story Especially Wen We’ve Had So Many Great Romance Stories Told Oscreen?

Love is Such An Innate Part of the Human Experience. I Bound to be a part of most films that we bring to life as artists. This One is Probably The Closest to A Straight Romance Story that i’ve Ever Had the Privilege of Telling. I’ve Always Been Drawn Towards Really Timeless Classics from Audrey Hepburn’s Films to Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were and this film felt very reminiscent of that. I also tend to enjoy in my films, the enemies to loveers Trope, who Purple Hearts and also tails place in My Oxford Year. I Think There’s Always Something Really Exciting About That Dynamic. The cinematography of this film Taking Place in Oxford is Just SO Sweeping and Romantic and Magical. It’s like every inch of Oxford is brimming with Poetry and History, and It Frames the Story Just So Beautifylly.

For this film, Oxford Felt Like It Own Character and It Was An Immersive Experience for the Audience. But I Read That You Didn’t Want to See Oxford Before Filming Buter Save Your Immediate Reaction to Seeing Iting for the FIRST TIME for the Film. WHY DID YOU MAKE THAT DECISION AND WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN SEEING IT FOR THE FIRST TIME?

I Really Wanted My First Time Witnessing and Experienceing Oxford to Take Place on Camera, So IT Was Real and Genuine and True to Anna’s Honest Reaction. I Just As Magical As It Feels on Film. It Doesn’t Feel Real. IT is so beauty, every inch of it. IT WAS SUCH A PRIVILEGE TO BE ABLE TO FILM This MOVIE AND BRING THIS LOVE STORY TO LIFE IN ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC INSTITATION IN THE WORLD.

Anna May Be New and Not from London But She Never Appears to Be A Fish Out of Water. She Goes in Very Confident and Really Sems to Adapt Easily to It. WAS that intenation to not Really Portray this Naïve Person?

Yeah, Anna Walks Into a Room and Makes Her Presance Known. She’s Beaming with CONFIDENCE, AND She KNOWS THAT She’s Earned IT. She’s deserved it. I Kind of Walked with That As I Walked in the Room As Anna, and She’s The Kind of Person Who Also Knows Exactly Whoa Is And What She Wants Out of Life, and Shet. and has planned every Single Moment of Her Life to Live It Delibrately. SO WHEN She’s in Oxford, She’s There to Live Every Moment With Confidentnce. And i’m glad that you felt that in meting Anna.

There’s a notable Scene in WHICH Anna Confronts Someone in A Pub Who Refers to Her As “Miss Mexico” and “Miss Diversity Quota.” Can You Talk About That Moment and Highlighting Anna’s Background and How That Also Served As A Foundation For Understanding Who She Is?

IT WAS SO IMPORTANT TO MY MOM AND I – My MOM AND I BOTH PRODUrated The Film Together – In Creating Anna’s World Was Her Background, Who Her Mother Is, Who Her FatHer Is. Hispanic, Latin Woman) in a Way that I would feel so proud to be repressned on Screen. I myself am a HISPANIC WOMAN. I am an American with hispanic parents who immigrated into this contry as is Anna. And so to see a girl who looks like me in oxford, in that institute, who had planed and worked her hole life to earn that moment, and then to be Faced with the plotun. World, Was So Crucial to Us. And to see how she handled it and how she stood up for Herself, and how she Always Makes Room for Herself in Everry Room That She Walks Into, Even As The World Is Truling To.

There’s Even A Conversation Between Anna and Jamie’s Facher Durying The Ball Where Jamie’s Father Talking About her Background, and She Says, “Yeah, My Mom Was A DocTOR in Argentina Because Her Degree Doesn’t Transfer. ” That was so Important to me as well, because so offen his Painted in one very narrow stereotypical picTure. I was Really That We Were Able to Bring Anna’s Story To Life in a Really Beautify Way that I Hope A Lot of Young Women Will Feel Represented.

Anna and Jamie Form A Connection Through Their Love of Literature and Poetry and It Sems Like They Can Can Communicate Thing the Word Thingshea Communicate. Can You Talk About Poetry and Literature Being This Foundation for Them and How It Helped Them See Each Other in A Way that that ones woldn’t?

That’s Such A that’s Such A Beautify Question, and You’re Right, That’s When They First Trulay Connect. WHEN WHY SITING IN HIS OFFICE AND She Starts Reading the Poem That She Picked, and He Starts Finishing Her Sentences, It’s Like Two People Sea Each Other for Who. And I Think that’s One of the MOST BEAUTIFUL Parts of this film is that they foll in love Through Poetry. They Fall in Love Through Literature. And we kind of Discover these Great Poets Like Like Alfred Tennyson or Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Even Even Some Quotes from Emily Dickinson that I washara. I Think The One that’s that Encompasses Jamie’s Love Written by Alfred Tennyson, Maybe 100 Years Ago, and He Said the Words, “It Is Better To have Love and Loved. Are some of the most beauty berts every written in the English language, and Really encompass their love story. Life is too Short to not live it in love and to not live it in joy, and to not live it in fullfillment, and that is what anna learns throughing in love with jamie.

This Story Is Emotional, But Is Rooted in Laughter. One Notable Fun Scene Was The Karaoke Scene. Now WHEN I SPOKE to Corey, He Explained that It Was Rather Traumatizing for Him to Watch HimSelf. So i have to ask What was it like filming that and your Thought on his performance especialy given you’re a professional Singer?

(Laughs.) I’m so glad the comedy resonated with you. IT WAS SO CRUCIAL TO US AND AND IN BRINGING IAIN MORRIS, OUR DIRECTOR – HE CREATED ONE OF The MOST ICONIC COMEDY SHOWS IN British Television The in Betweeners – IT was so important that our film be grounded in laughter, because so offen WHEN Life Gets Dark and Hard, Laughter Is How We Shad Light. I love that moment and being in the audience! I Thought it Was so endearing, and i just felt the rest of the world was just going to foll in love with him Even Even More for Being So Brave, FREE AND SO Tender and Honest in that Moment. [He was] SO VISIBLY UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT SO GAME AT SAME TIME. It’s Such A Beautify Moment in the Film. And Also It Ties Together. He sings the song “yelw” and then you see Anna in Her Yellow Dress, and Yellow Becomes a Really Important Theme for Us in the Film; WHAT The Color Yellow Means is Hope and Light. Marty Literally Cries Watching That Scene, Because He Thinks It’s Really Emotion, But It’s Really Endearing!

With Jamie and Anna’s Dynamic, Jamie Wants Things Between Them to Be Kept Fun Given The Secret He’s Keeping But IT Sems Like Who could understand whohh reality is and the challenges he’s living Through. And Also Maybe Vice Versa with Howe Jamie Helps Anna. They Seem to Subvert Each Other’s Expectations. Can You Talk About The Progression of Their Relationship?

From Anna’s Perspective, Anna Walks Into Oxford, and She’s Not Looking for Any Serious Distractions. She’s A Tremendously Goal Oriented Young Woman. She’s there to make the most out of her year, Study as Much, read as Much, Learn as Much, Absorb As Much. So if she does have something with a boy, she doesn’t want it to be series. And THEN JAMIE, OF COURSE, WE DON’T KNOWH HIS Secret, But He Obvioously Has A Profound Reason for Wanting To Keep Things Fun and Light. And so in the beginning, it works for broth of them. But then, as we all Know Very Well, Love Changes Us, and Falling in Love Changes You and It Changed These Two Individuals in Really Powerful Ways. It Changed Anna [who went] INTO LIVING THE LIFE THAT EVERYTHING WAS JUST SO Perfectly Planned and S O Delibraten Thought Through, Into Understanding That Beauty of Life, No Matter How Painful It Can Be, Exists in The Messes, In The Freedom, The Joy, In The Love and The UnEXPECTED. And then for jamie, I Think She CraCarded Something of Him Where He Was So Terrified of Hurting and of Pain. But I Think Her Love Transformed Him in that Way, and He Wanted Her there. He Wanted to Be Loved by Her, and HE WANTED THAT Companionship More Than Ever, Racher Than Pushing It Away. It’s this beauty, impossible, heartbreaking love, but it’s the kind of love that changes you forver.

WHEN We Learn of Jamie’s Illness and His Decision to Not Continue Treatment, Anna Never Sems to Ever Try to Convince Him to Change His Mind But Rather Intead Condad Him to Side Through this Journey Regardless of How Long Has Left. Can You Talk About Her Decision to Remain by His Side and Respecting His Choice?

IT WAS RELALLY ADMIRABLE. I ofTen Didn’t Understand It, But I Think It Was Such Proof of How Much She Knew Him and Understood Him and Loved Him for Exactly Who He Was, and Sodo BYWHTHINGS. PainFul it would be. I MEAN, SHE EVEN STANDS BESIDE HIM WHEN SHEAKING TO HIS FATHER, AND SHE DAY A REAL DIPFICULT CONFRONTION THERE, BUT she as a nage hosch respect and i thoughing an un. Anything else and exactly who he is.

At the end of the Film, we don’t Necessarily See Jamie Pass Away Buter Gether Gether Get A Snapshot of What Could’ve Been With Him and Anna Traveling and Completing that Bucket List List that Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie. What did you make of the ending? Had Jamie Not Been Sick, What Did You Envision for What Could’ve Been For Him and For Him and Anna?

Wow, that’s a fantastic quest that i have not thorough of. But to Touch on the First Part of Your Question, I Appreciate You Enjoying How We Decided To Finish The Movie, Because It Was Dan Definitely a Big Conversation for All of Us. It Was Really Important for Marty That We Never Know For Sure if We Never See Jamie Leaving Us. And it was also so important for US that this movie ended with hope, with life after love and seeing that snapshot of Anna and doing the Things She Always Wanted to Do. That sequence of them, traveling in Europe, we shot every Scene in Amsterdam and Paris and Venice and Greece, Both with Myseld and Corey and Ten Me ALONE. And Even While We Were Shooting, We WENEN’T EXACTLY SURE How It Wound Cut Together. There Was Thought Cutting Together with Just Anna Alone, of It Only Being The Two of Them and Ten We Decided On the Compilation of Both WHERE You Kind of See. THAT THAT MOMENT, WHICH WAS SO BEAUTIFULLY SHOT IN GREECE, WHERE The Camera Kind of Toes The 360 AROUND THEM, AND THEN WE SEE HIM DisAPPEAR AND IT’S The IMPLICTION Really Impactful For Us. For ME, It Was Really Important That It Was Clear That Anna Was Not Stepping Into Jamie’s Shoes. Anna Was Stepping Into Her Own. Her Dream Was Always to Do this, and in this Love She and Guess She Gained the Confident or the Realization That Life Is Too Short To and Be the Thing You’ve Always Wanted to and Be.

And then in Terms of Whaty Wuld’ve Been, Fantastic Question Because It Changes SO Much of the Relationship, Doesn’t It? Even if he wasn’t sick, it changes so much of that dynamic. But i dokhye each of Other’s Great Loves, and I WONER IF PERHAPS ANNA Wuld Have Gone Back and Worked a Year in New York, and THEN She PROBABLD HAER Who she is, the Nor What She Wants, and Perhaps would have still ended up at atxford teaching. I don’t know for certain, but i KNow with a doubt in my mind that were each of the other love of their lives.

WHAT DO YOU Ultimately HOPE THAT PEOPLE AWAY from this film and what did you take away from it and this character?

I Learned So Much from Anna, and I Related SO Much to Her, Because Similarly to Her, I’M A Planner. I LIVE DELIBERATELY by Planning every Single Moment. And I Learned Through Become Her, I Was Reminded That Messness of Life Is Often The Mistautify and Unexpectioned Parts of Life. I ALSO THINK, LIKE So Many of Us, We Also Fear HeartBreak, But This Movie Is The Reminder That Is Just SO Much Better to Have Loved Than Never to have love at all. I THINK WHAT I HOPE PEOPLE AWAY more thaning is what i is what i mentioned earlier, is that life is too short to live itte Means to you.

Now with My Oxford Year Being the New Addition to Your Growing List of Stories We’ve Seen Onscreen, What’s Next? A Purple Hearts sequel perhaps? What Other Stories Are You Looking Forward to Telling?

(Laughs.) That is the quest! You Know, It’s Been A Really Exciting and Thrilling Journey, Especially This Last Year. Purple Hearts Made History, And It Did What It Did, And I DON’T THINK Any of USE EXPECTED THAT TO HAPPEN A Secund Time If IF It Happy Again. Carry-on went on to make history as the Second MOST STREAMED MOVIE IN THE HISTORY OF NETFLIX, AND THEN Life List DID IT AGAIN. SO I THINK THERE’S A CERTAIN Level of Pressure That Is Weighting On My Shoulders. A Lot of It Is Self Induced WHEN IT MAKING TOSE NEXT DECISIONS. But I Think What I KEEP REMinding MySelf of, With Artists The MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO IS Any Story What You Tell, Whther It’s Film or MOVIE is HONEST AND TRUE to WHO YOU ARE, AND IS AN IMPORTANT Story To Tell. And that’s Kind of My Compass in Tese Next Decisions. But We are in the Middle of Developing A FEW Things that i’m Really Excited About. I’m Excited to Continue Elegating the Caliber of Artists That I Surround MySelf With – Directors, Actors, Writers – and Challenging Myselda As An Actor and The Stories. I have love being able to bring stories that give Light to People When It Feels Like The World Is A Bit of A Dark Place Right Now, And I I DON’T’T DAKE THAT PRIVILEGE LIGHTLY. I Think It’s A Beautify Thing to Be Able to Do That.

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My Oxford Year is streaming now on netflix.