Stepping into someone else’s shoes is one of the things Sophie Vincent most loves about acting. It is, she muses, a “strange privilege to understand someone’s circumstance” and one that can be mentally challenging. It encourages you to explore previously unexplored parts of your inner psyche, developing intuitiveness and self-knowledge “at the deepest level”.
Among Aotearoa’s most promising creatives (read: actor, singer, writer, and theatre-maker), Sophie is currently majoring in drama at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and has already performed in the UK as well as New York, singing in Carnegie Hall, Windsor Castle, and Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod festival.
“Since I can remember, I’ve been an extremely extroverted and animated person,” she says. “Chatty and bold like my parents! Our piles of home videos are full of concerts I’d put on for them. My sister—who is a makeup artist—would dress my cousins and I up, do our makeup, and we would act out talk shows, dance around and sing songs. I’d put on voices, play different characters and make my parents hysterical with my silly impressions that I’d stolen from watching Disney Channel. I got such a thrill from entertaining.”
Sophie’s first public performance was as Mary in her kindergarten nativity play, then, she says, drama classes became her “safe haven” where she could “express myself and transform”.
“The feeling I felt from being on stage with people I had grown to love, and the rush it gave me, I knew I would be chasing that feeling for the rest of my life,” she says. “There was simply nothing else like it. Anyone who has grown up around the theatre knows that there is a certain magic to it. It has brought me endless joy, a sense of community, and most of my closest friends.”
Not to mention a few life lessons, too.
“Acting has taught me that the human experience is truly the most fascinating thing to exist. I constantly find myself curious about why we are the way we are. I love that each character is a new challenge, there are not two characters who are the same, and that from the outside you can never be sure of what someone is going through. So, the main thing that acting has taught me, is to always lead with empathy.”
Sophie’s mum, Sandi, she says, as taught her much also. A constant source of inspiration, Sophie beams that she’s “bold and driven and doesn’t let anyone tell her what she can and can’t do”: “She successfully runs a business and raised my sister and I to believe that we could do and be whatever I put we put our minds to. I’m so eternally grateful for this example of strong femininity growing up.”
Professionally, Sophie names icons such as Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, and Viola Davis among those who have inspired her by “reshaping the entertainment industry” in order to allow “more opportunity for women every day”. Younger heroes include Zendaya, Elle Fanning and Saoirse Ronan.
I ask Sophie if she prefers acting in front of a camera, or on stage.
“I think the stage will always have my heart,” she says. “The physical energy present within theatre is unmatched to anything I’ve ever experienced. Being in a room full of living, breathing people is a part of the theatre experience that makes it so unique. Though I find that recently I’ve found myself falling in love with the intimacy of film and television and working with a camera. I’m mainly focusing on film and TV work at the moment as I’ve spent most of my college career at NYU doing theatre through the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, but now am continuing my studies at Stonestreet Studios.”
Do you get stage fright?
“Nerves are always a part of performing. I’ve started to enjoy them, as strange as that sounds. I welcome them. They remind me that I care, that I’m invested, that what I’m doing has significance and that I’m about to create a little magic. I don’t try to fight or avoid them, but rather use them to propel me on stage, or in front of the camera. Plus, I’m usually not playing myself, so that makes things a little easier as I have the mask of a character to play behind.”
Is there a particular piece you always perform at auditions?
“It changes depending on the audition that I’m doing. But if I have the choice of my piece, I pick scenes with strong and complex women as that is something I always want to see more of in the industry.”
Though she’d always dreamt of studying acting, by the end of high school, Sophie says that it seemed more and more like an “unrealistic pipe dream”. Thanks to the persistence of a handful of teachers who showed belief in her she applied to three of Australia’s leading acting schools… but didn’t get in.
“I felt pretty lost,” she admits. “I remember crying on the floor of the shower as my mum sat on the other side of the glass saying, ‘Your time will come.’ I then planned that I’d take a gap year and reaudition the following year.”
When applying for some short drama courses (including the Actors Centre Australia in Sydney where she was accepted and spent five months), Sophie’s mum convinced her to apply for New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“I thought, maybe the idea of going overseas wasn’t so unrealistic so I also applied, and was luckily accepted,” she says. “Some things really do happen for a reason. Since being in New York, I have grown astronomically. I love the energy of the city, and its restlessness is similar to mine. The thing about New York City is that you can be whoever you want to be. I feel like there is room for me to expand here and claim my full potential. I’m still growing and learning this every day. I love to sit in the various parks and people watch, as well as walk through the West Village and along the Hudson River. I deeply miss seeing live theatre, going to the movies, and sitting in little coffee shops since the pandemic began.”
Post-pandemic restrictions, Sophie says that the first thing she’ll do is get herself a ticket to a Broadway show. “Just thinking about sitting in a theatre makes me want to cry, I miss it more than anything. That and going out dancing with my friends, since my year of being a 21-year-old in NYC was mostly in lockdown.”
What do you most miss about Aotearoa?
“Currently, a lot. I always miss my family and friends who are there. I’m in a long-distance relationship, so obviously missing that too. Being in America during the pandemic, but also throughout the Trump administration, has been strange and a bit scary. I don’t find myself wanting to move home but do miss being able to visit since Covid-19 has made travelling much harder.”
Even though it’s been such an isolating period, with much of her courses and training conducted online, Sophie says that the Big Apple “never lost its charm or sense of community”: “Just taking a walk around the village is a pretty quick way to remind myself how lucky I am to be here.”
A “proud Kiwi”, Sophie says that she was amazed to discover just how many Americans didn’t even know where Aotearoa was when she first arrived, but in a bitter-sweet twist, that has now all changed, too.
“New Zealand has really become a country that Americans wish they could move to,” says the actress. “People here love New Zealand and view it as a safe and wonderful place to live. They aren’t wrong.”
