Sofia Carson on ‘The Life List’ and working with her mother Laura
Sofia Carson sits down with USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa to talk about her new film “The Life List” and her relationship with her mother Laura.
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Making a movie is messy.
For as long as Hollywood has existed, there’s been many a tale of personality clashes, unfortunate events and filmmaking shenanigans. (Speaking from personal experience, having visited quite a few movie sets, there’s always a potential for chaos.) The new Apple TV+ comedy “The Studio” makes hay with that situation, starring Seth Rogen as the embattled head of a movie studio and a cavalcade of A-list cameos. If the Bible is more your jam than Tinseltown, the fifth season of the popular series “The Chosen” is upon us, focusing on the days leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. And Sofia Carson, the former Disney Channel kid and current queen of Netflix movies, goes on an epic emotional quest with the life-affirming “The Life List.”
Now on to the good stuff:
Catch Seth Rogen as a fumbling movie executive in ‘The Studio’
Apple TV+ has been my happy place lately: I finally started watching “Severance” like the rest of the world – pretty good after four episodes! – and also am enjoying “The Studio.” Seth Rogen co-directs and stars in the Hollywood satire as the newly appointed head of a movie studio who pretty much immediately is a cringey disaster. In the first two episodes, he seeks a director to make a “Barbie”-esque Kool-Aid movie and also visits the set of a film trying to capture the perfect one-shot take. (It doesn’t go well.)
At the South by Southwest premiere of the show, Rogen told my colleague Erin Jensen that he and filmmaking partner Evan Goldberg tried to put as much of their own head-scratching and wince-inducing experiences into the show as possible: “We were in a meeting once with an executive who said the thing I say (in the first episode), which is, ‘I got into this because I love movies, and now it’s my job to ruin them.’ Which became one of the cornerstones of the whole character, in a lot of ways.”
See some ‘iconic’ Jesus moments in ‘The Chosen’ Season 5
Speaking of set visits, Erin stopped by the Texas-based production of “The Chosen” for a feature on the fifth season of the biblical drama series. It’s being divided into three theatrical releases – the first part is out now, and the next two are coming April 4 and April 11 – before streaming in full on Prime Video in June. The eight new episodes focus on the days leading up the crucifixion of Jesus (played by Jonathan Roumie).
“This is the season where some of the most iconic moments in history are taking place,” says creator Dallas Jenkins. “You’ve got the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. You’ve got the turning over the tables in the temple. You got the Last Supper. You got Judas’ betrayal. These are moments that have such visual and emotional weight that I think that, more than any season we’ve ever done, it demands to be seen on the big screen.”
Stream Netflix’s tear-jerking ‘The Life List’ with Sofia Carson
Those in the mood for a story of self-discovery (with all the feels!) can dig into “The Life List” (streaming now on Netflix) based on the Lori Nelson Spielman book. Sofia Carson, who starred in “The Descendants” movies before becoming a Netflix fixture, plays a young woman named Alex whose mother (Connie Britton) dies of cancer. Her mom leaves a video for her asking Alex to complete the “life list” she made as a 13-year-old kid, including trying stand-up comedy and going one-on-one with a New York Knick.
My colleague Ralphie Aversa invited Carson into our New York studio, and she reveals that “finding love” is something that makes both her and her character’s bucket lists. “Through this beautiful journey, (Alex) falls in love with herself,” Carson says. “It’s a journey that is scary, but that all of us should go on.”
Even more goodness to check out!
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