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Sophie Thatcher has spent the last few years establishing herself as one of the most exciting young actors regularly working in the horror genre. In addition to being a standout in the ensemble cast of the phenomenal Showtime series Yellowjackets, she has delivered terrific performances in films including the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman and Heretic (which is now playing in theaters). Her next scary movie is on the way soon, as the mysterious and buzzy Companion arrives in theaters in January – and the story of her casting sounds like a classic, magical Hollywood behind-the-scenes moment.
The making of Companion was discussed earlier this month during a filmmaker Q&A following a screening at Los Angeles’ Beyond Fest, and moderator Jason Reitman specifically asked about the casting process for the movie – which sees a collection of friends meet up for a stay at a remote lake house and see events take a violent turn. Writer/director Drew Hancock first explained that he didn’t have anyone specifically in mind for the various characters in the story because he felt that was a road that would lead straight to disappointment. He explained,
You get your heartbroken if you write a part for an actor and then they say no. So I’ve learned to just kind of create these kind of amorphous, shaded characters that aren’t fully formed, like deflated balloons. And then essentially you’ll hire someone that’ll fill it up and give it shade.
Hancock, Companion’s producers, and casting director Nancy Nayor brought an open mind to the process of finding someone to play Iris, the movie’s protagonist, but that approach also meant that the production had to cast a wide net to find the perfect actor for the role. The writer/director said that hundreds of women were in consideration, but the part proved difficult to cast because there is an important switch that occurs at the mid-point of the story, and the film required a talent who could deliver both halves of the performance (if it’s not obvious, I’m very much dancing around spoilers here).
Said Hancock,
We had like 300 self-tapes. We had a lot of chemistry reads. Great, great actors… fantastic actors, but it was a difficult tight rope to walk because you first half of the movie needs to play like the withering violet; you have to believe her as like this meek character. In the second half, she has to play essentially an action star and you have to believe her that she could be strong and empowered.
Then they had the opportunity to get a good look at Sophie Thatcher.
As Drew Hancock tells it, Sophie Thatcher logged in for a virtual meeting about the part that had Companion’s filmmakers all tuned in, and it took no time at all for everyone to recognize that she was the right star to play Iris. It was so apparent that Hancock even went as far as to call it cliché:
We did the chemistry read over Zoom, and it was like instantaneous. I think every single person, like it was across the board – all the producers, New Line, Warner Bros., like everybody. The second we saw, her we were like, ‘Oh yeah, we got to make this happen.’ It was cliché. She said two words and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ like just imagining like, ‘This is not gonna work out, she’s perfect for this. It’s never gonna happen.’ And thank God it did, because I think she’s just phenomenal. She was just so fun work with.
Also starring Jack Quaid, Harvey Guillén, Megan Suri, Lukas Gage and Rupert Friend, Companion is one of the earliest horror movies on the 2025 movie release calendar and is set to arrive on the big screen on January 31. You’re not going to want to miss it – and you’re definitely going to want to see it ASAP when it arrives to avoid spoilers.