Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
It’s been quite the year already for Sophia Lillis, the standout child star of Stephen King’s “It” (2017).
Back in March, she starred in “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” followed by Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” last month. This Friday, she makes it a trifecta by starring in the new indie flick “The Adults.”
“You could call it a ‘dramedy’ for sure,” Lillis told WTOP. “It’s all about siblings, and when you’re hanging out with siblings, there’s always going to be laughter and also a little emotional. It’s a very emotional movie.”
Having premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, the film follows a gambling addict, Eric (Michael Cera), who returns home to become the best poker player in town. He deals with animosity from his eldest sister Rachel (Hannah Gross), while trying to revive the fun camaraderie he once shared with his youngest sister Maggie (Lillis).
“It’s their first time in a while to have a family reunion,” Lillis said. “It’s all about what it means to be a family and what it means to grow up because they all remain like their kid selves, especially when they’re together. It’s all about grief and how they deal with it. I play Maggie, the youngest sibling, and I am the person trying to keep the family together. I bring back childhood memorabilia and try to get them to talk.”
She loved working with Cera of “Juno” (2007), “Superbad” (2007) and “Arrested Development” (2003-2019).
“He’s a very natural actor,” Lillis said. “He stays true to himself, from what I’ve noticed. I don’t know what his method is, but I know — it seems like whatever he does, he morphs into a certain character, maybe using his own personal experiences. … That’s what I really like about his acting and the way he speaks. So it was great working with him, seeing how he works and what he’s doing, so I try to learn from him, I guess. … The rapport was there.”
She also bonded quickly with Gross, who starred in David Fincher’s TV series “Mindhunter” (2017).
“It was really easy to get to know her,” Lillis said. “She’s such a funny character, just generally. We did a lot of rehearsals beforehand because there’s all this singing and dancing involved, so we took some time ahead of time to flesh that out. In doing so, we got to actually hang out with each other and get to know each other. That really helped, I think, in creating this sibling relationship. That helped a lot. It was so nice to be around these people.”
The film is directed by Dustin Guy Defa of the recent Sundance hit “Person to Person” (2017).
“Dustin is such a good director,” Lillis said. “He really knows how to create this environment that just makes things so easy. … Everything felt like I’m not forcing anything, it’s like we’re making something together.”
She most recently worked with Wes Anderson on “Asteroid City” (2023), co-starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum.
“He’s definitely a very different director,” Lillis said. “He paints a picture. He’s painting a big mural and every little actor is just a different piece in making everything work together to make this portrait. He’s very exact, he wants one specific thing, so whenever you go on set, you have to stand in this specific place and move in this specific way. … That was a crazy experience. … Growing up, I loved ‘Bottle Rocket’ and ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ and all of his stuff.”
Of course, her biggest box-office smash so far has been the horror remake of Stephen King’s “It” (2017), directed by Argentine filmmaker Andy Muschietti with a creepy performance by Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Clown.
“He was definitely a scary clown,” Lillis said. “The magic of being super scary is different being on set because you get to see him in half-clown makeup trying to drink tea through a straw. … He’s also just a sweet man in real life, so it wasn’t as scary as you may think, but it’s so funny looking back on that now, knowing them all as kids when we were 14 years old. We still keep in touch. … I always look back on playing Beverly and being a part of it fondly.”
Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
