The Ascension of Sophie Thatcher

The day before Halloween, Sophie Thatcher was Ubering to Staples when she got an unprompted astrological chart reading. After offering up her sign, a double Libra with a Cancer Moon, to the driver, he followed with an eerily accurate description of what’s been going on in her life. The actress was shocked by how much it resonated.

“I'm into [astrology] for fun… I believe in a lot of it,” she tells Maire Claire over Zoom just hours after that surreal car ride. “But I try not to get too involved, let it dictate anything.”

While Thatcher doesn't believe in horoscopes ruling her decision-making, belief in all forms is always on her mind. It's even the focus of her latest A24 film Heretic, about two Mormon missionaries summoned to the front door of a sadistic atheist.

The project, hitting select theaters November 8, felt predetermined by a high power for Thatcher. The 24-year-old grew up in Chicago, Illinois, in the Mormon faith.

“I remember getting the email in my inbox and I was like, Oh, fuck, I have to get this,” she says, speaking from the home she’s renting with her boyfriend, musician Austin Feinstein, in L.A.’s Nichols Canyon. Dressed in a patterned knit top and her signature shaggy bangs parted into curtains, she speaks candidly, frequently noting how “earnest” she can be.

The actress saw the thriller, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, as an opportunity to play a character who was more rigid than her past roles. After first auditioning for the naive Sister Paxton, she got a callback for the discerning Sister Barnes, eventually landing the part in 2023. (The Fabelmans breakout Chloe East plays Paxton.) In the at times funny, cat-and-mouse film, the two hold their own going toe-to-toe with the theology-obsessed, Radiohead-loving Mr. Reed, played by a creepily charismatic Hugh Grant

Thatcher says it was “strange” stepping into a role paralleling a route her life could have taken as part of the Mormon community—one she never felt particularly connected to. “Even when I was younger, I knew I was never going to be a missionary [and] that I was probably going to leave the church at some point because I was so distracted with acting that I could never fully be attentive or present when I was in church.”

She recalls throwing tantrums before leaving for church and what effect religious teachings had on her mental health. “I believed in the ‘what not to do,’ but I didn't know what to do,” she says. “That gave me a lot of anxiety. And I think, if anything, that feeling was way more overwhelming than the positive for me growing up. I was always afraid I was going to go to hell… I remember thinking when I was 8, There's no way I'm going to Heaven. I've already fucked it all up. It's too late now.”

She credits her liberal parents with exposing her to music, culture, and movies, and says her two atheist older siblings created “a very natural angst” in her from a young age. After always having a knack for performing, and singing in the church choir where her mother was the pianist, she immersed herself in local theater and led her first professional production in the fifth grade. By the time Thatcher was 14, she was performing in eight shows a week and left the faith.

“I remember when I was still in the church, I wanted so badly to be normal, and that was the only thing I could think of,” she says. “I felt so different from everybody else that it was almost like this character that I was pretending to play. And that left me with a lot of guilt, too. So I think doing theater and finding other people that were big personalities and strange and had different tastes was a nice release.”

Despite already being aware of Mormon values before booking Heretic, Thatcher still prepared for the role by researching what young, practicing Mormon women are like today. Because her costar Chloe East also grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is still in touch with some of her Mormon friends, Thatcher asked to see their Instagrams for “how they presented themselves” (the “clean girl aesthetic”) and where they shopped (boho brands like Free People).

Thatcher also wrote a handful of journal entries in character to channel Barnes’ clever nature. (Unlike her counterpart, Barnes is immediately suspicious of Mr. Reed and is more adept at his challenging line of questioning and the Dante’s Inferno-like descent that unfolds.) “Because so much of this movie is a lot of reacting and a lot of listening, a strong internal monologue was really important going into it because there are so many levels of listening and figuring out when she thinks she wants to talk or wants to say something.”

Barnes is one of several outsider characters Thatcher has played since entering the Hollywood scene. Yellowjackets’ Natalie, which put the actress and her shag haircut on the map, couldn’t be more different than her teammates whom she’s stuck in the wilderness with on the Showtime hit. She explains that she’s drawn to the roles because she’s always felt like an outsider herself, having grown up as what she calls “a very obnoxiously serious kid” who retreated to listening to Elliot Smith, recording atmospheric music, and writing short stories about witches and creating eccentric plays with her twin sister.

Tapping into that side of herself, she realizes now, made her feel more fulfilled. “As soon as I started embracing my otherness, I became more confident,” she says. “It was around 18 when I was like, Okay, I can play into my weirdness and not downplay it. I knew that was easier for me and helped me, of course, get Natalie and even callbacks for certain stuff.”

Thatcher is leaning into that more than ever, having just independently released her debut EP, Pivot & Scrape, on October 11. “What makes me more confident now is that I can do music and I can do art and I'm not comparing myself anymore,” she shared. “I'm not trying to fit into anyone's box.”

The DIY project is a noisy dreamscape, and Thatcher relished taking creative control with her lyrics and in the studio. “It’s the most religious feeling,” she says of making art on her terms.

Even though her music wrestles with themes like redemption and hope, over ethereal tracks that often sound like hymns, working on Heretic didn’t inform the five-song EP. Faith is simply “ever-present” in her life, she says, given how it was instilled in her as a child.

“When I'm coming up with melodies, it feels like I'm in this other meditative state you can't describe. It's like you're on drugs, but you're not. It's about trusting that and trusting yourself to be open and vulnerable to get there. And then the same with acting: When you're really present in the moment, it's just about trusting yourself and letting yourself go there.”

2025 will also be another transformative year for Thatcher. In January, she’ll lead the already buzzy thriller Companion, opposite Jack Quaid, in a dark and unconventional love story. And the critically acclaimed Yellowjackets will return for season 3 next year

The actress confirms the Emmy-winning series wrapped filming in mid-October and says her experience on set felt different this year. On one hand, she felt the void of her adult counterpart/mentor Juliette Lewis not being there (Lewis’s character “adult Natalie” was killed off in the season 2 finale). “It felt empty without Juliette,” says Thatcher, but adds that her absence allowed a sense of “freedom,” since she was able to stop comparing herself to Lewis’s portrayal of the character. “I was always like, Oh, I'm not as intense—it's really hard to reach that level of intensity.”

The end of last season also saw Thatcher’s character claiming the horned crown and stepping into the role of the Antler Queen.

“It was really challenging on me emotionally, and I wasn't expecting that.” She was “nervous” to return to set because of that character arc but adds, “[Natalie] also felt that too. I think she felt like this restlessness and that she was a good leader, but she felt uncomfortable being in charge. So then I played into it. Whatever I was feeling kind of worked.”

Thatcher, being very wary of giving away any spoilers or pointing toward any fan theories, simply teases that Natalie's storyline this season had “a lot to play around with” and “a lot of emotional releases.” “It felt really nice and satisfying in a way that I hadn't really had it before.”

In the midst of press tours and film releases in the new year, she’s also planning to tour her EP. She’s enjoying her ascension as an artist on-screen and a musician—even as it’s been hard to wrap her head around, given her tendency to be a bit self-deprecating.

Thatcher is working on moving past that. Days like the one where she got the call that she booked both Heretic and Companion, two projects she was gunning for, help. “I just felt really lucky. And it all felt very random. But then I do I put in a lot of work,” she says as if to emphasize the power of her own free will over whatever might be written in her Libra-heavy chart.

“I have this thing sometimes where I'm like, If I want something so bad, I know I'm not going to get it. But [booking those projects] kind of debunked that.”

Going against her superstitions, she’s reveling in believing in herself.

Makeup Lilly Keys | Hair Ericka Verrett | Stylist Christina Turner