Sofia Carson Is Ready to Offer a “Classic Timeless Love Story” With ’My Oxford Year’

[This story contains spoilers for Netflix’s My Oxford Year.]

Audiences may have seen Sofia Carson fall in love onscreen in roles such as Netflix’s Purple Hearts and the Life List, but her new film is offering a revival of the traditional classic love story.

“There’s a certain level of escapism that comes with falling in love with a love story that is so beautiful to be able to offer that, and this one in particular just felt timeless,” Carson tells 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 Iain Morris and starring Carson (who also exec produce) and Queen Charlotte star Corey Mylchreest. The film, based on the 2018 book by Julia Wheelan, centers on Carson’s Anna, an ambitious young American woman who sets out for Oxford University to fulfill a lifelong dream. Though she has her life planned, things take an unexpected turn when she meets local and her professor Jamie (played by Mylchreest). They may find a connection through literature and poetry but soon their unforseen bond alters both of their lives.

“It’s like these two people see each other for who they are for the very first time,” Carson says. “I think that’s one of the 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 emotional turn and hopes 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 brought to life some of the most 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 I 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 beautiful love story, the kind of love that changes you. I felt so sure that Marty and Temple Hill were the partners to bring this to life, and it’s been a beautiful journey ever since.

You’ve become quite the presence 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 tell these stories?

I was always writing love songs years before I had ever even 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 that is so beautiful to be able to offer that, and this one in particular just felt timeless. It felt like a classic, and it felt like it had been a while since I 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 necessities to make a romance film stand out and be a timeless story especially when we’ve had so many great romance stories told onscreen?

Love is such an innate part of the human experience. It’s 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 lovers trope, which happened in Purple Hearts and also takes 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 beautifully.

For this film, Oxford felt like its own character and it was an immersive experience for the audience. But I read that you didn’t want to see Oxford before filming but rather save your immediate reaction to seeing it 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 experiencing Oxford to take place on camera, so it was real and genuine and true to Anna’s honest reaction. It’s just as magical as it feels on film. It doesn’t feel real. It is so beautiful, 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 institutions 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 seems to adapt easily to it. Was that intentional to not really portray this naïve person?

Yeah, Anna walks into a room and makes her presence 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 who she is and what she wants out of life, and she takes the rose living deliberately, quite literally, and has planned every single moment of her life to live it deliberately. So when she’s in Oxford, she’s there to live every moment with confidence. And I’m glad that you felt that in meeting 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 produced the film together — in creating Anna’s world was her background, who her mother is, who her father is and representing a woman of color (a Hispanic, Latin woman) in a way that I would feel so proud to be represented on screen. I myself am a Hispanic woman. I am an American with Hispanic parents who immigrated into this country as is Anna. And so to see a girl who looks like me in Oxford, in that institution, who has planned and worked her whole life to earn that moment, and then to be faced with the racism that we are still, unfortunately plagued with in this 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 every room that she walks into, even as the world is trying to take it away, was really important.

There’s even a conversation between Anna and Jamie’s father during the ball where Jamie’s father talking about her background, and she says, “Yeah, my mom was a doctor in Argentina, studied medicine and now is a nurse, because her degree doesn’t transfer.” That was so important to me as well, because so often Hispanics are painted in only one very narrow stereotypical picture. I was really proud that we were able to bring Anna’s story to life in a really beautiful 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 seems like they can communicate through the written word things they can’t articulate or are still trying to understand. Can you talk about poetry and literature being this foundation for them and how it helped them see each other in a way that others wouldn’t?

That’s such a that’s such a beautiful question, and you’re right, that’s when they first truly connect. When they’re sitting in his office and she starts reading the poem that she picked, and he starts finishing her sentences, it’s like these two people see each other for who they are for the very first time. And I think that’s one of the most beautiful parts of this film is that they fall in love through poetry. They fall in love through literature. And we kind of discover these great poets like Alfred Tennyson or Elizabeth Barrett Browning and even some quotes from Emily Dickinson that I wasn’t familiar with that are such a tenant of their relationship. I think the one that encompasses Jamie’s love was written by Alfred Tennyson, maybe 100 years ago, and he said the words, “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” which I think are some of the most beautiful words ever 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 fulfillment, and that is what Anna learns through falling in love with Jamie.

This story is emotional, but it’s 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 thoughts on his performance especially 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 often when life gets dark and hard, laughter is how we shed 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 fall in love with him even more for being so brave, free and so tender and honest in that moment. [He was] so visibly uncomfortable, but so game at the same time. It’s such a beautiful moment in the film. And also it ties together. He sings the song “Yellow” 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 emotional, 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 seems like it took somebody like Anna to challenge Jamie into thinking that maybe there is a person who could understand who he really is and the challenges he’s living through. And also maybe vice versa with how 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 serious. And then Jamie, of course, we don’t know his secret, but he obviously has a profound reason for wanting to keep things fun and light. And so in the beginning, it works for both 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 so deliberately thought through, into understanding that the beauty of life, no matter how painful it can be, exists in the messiness, in the freedom, the joy, in the love and the unexpected. And then for Jamie, I think she cracked something inside 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, rather than pushing it away. It’s this beautiful, impossible, heartbreaking love, but it’s the kind of love that changes you forever.

When we learn of Jamie’s illness and his decision to not continue treatment, Anna never seems to ever try to convince him to change his mind but rather instead convince him to not push her away and let her stand by his side through this journey regardless of how long he has left. Can you talk about her decision to remain by his side and respecting his choice?

It was really 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 stood by that decision regardless of how absolutely heart wrenchingly painful it would be. I mean, she even stands beside him when she’s speaking to his father, and she has to have a really difficult confrontation there, but she has such respect and I think an understanding of Jamie that she never asks him to be anything else and exactly who he is.

At the end of the film, we don’t necessarily see Jamie pass away but rather get a snapshot of what could’ve been with him and Anna traveling and completing that bucket list that Jamie mentions. 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 question that I have not thought 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 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 myself and Corey and then me alone. And even while we were shooting, we weren’t exactly sure how it would cut together. There was thoughts of it cutting together with just Anna alone, of it only being the two of them and then we decided on the compilation of both where you kind of see them doing this trip together. Then that moment, which was so beautifully shot in Greece, where the camera kind of does the 360 around them, and then we see him disappear and it’s the implication that he’s gone and that she did this without him, was felt 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 I guess she gained the confidence or the realization that life is too short to not do and be the thing you’ve always wanted to do and be.

And then in terms of what they would’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 do think they were each other’s great loves, and I wonder if perhaps Anna would have gone back and worked a year in New York, and then she probably would have come to the realization on her own, but that’s not who she is, nor what she wants, and perhaps would have still ended up at Oxford teaching. I don’t know for certain, but I know without a doubt in my mind that they were each other’s love of their lives.

What do you ultimately hope that people take 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 becoming her, I was reminded that the messiness of life is often the most beautiful and unexpected parts of life. I also think, like so many of us, we also fear heartbreak, but this movie is the reminder that it’s just so much better to have loved than never to have loved at all. I think what I hope people take away more than anything is what I mentioned earlier, is that life is too short to not live it in love and to not live it in joy and to not live it in complete and utter fulfillment, whatever that 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 question! 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 us expected that to happen a second time if it happened 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 weighing on my shoulders. A lot of it is self induced when it comes to now making these next decisions. But I think what I keep reminding myself of, with artists the most important thing that we can do is any story that you tell, whether it’s film or movie, it just has to be something that you love, that you believe in, that is honest and true to who you are, and is an important story to tell. And that’s kind of my compass in these next decisions. But we are in the middle of developing a few things that I’m really excited about. I’m excited to continue elevating the caliber of artists that I surround myself with —directors, actors, writers — and challenging myself as an actor and the stories that I tell. I have loved 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 don’t take that privilege lightly. I think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to do that.

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My Oxford Year is streaming now on Netflix.