Sophia Soto
In All Her Fault, Sophia Lillis gets to truly showcase her talent as Carrie Finch, whose real name is Josephine Murphy. Originally depicted as someone who kidnapped another mother’s child with an elaborate plan, we eventually see how the boy was stolen from her first, when she was unable to stop Peter Irvine (Jake Lacy) from swapping their babies after a car accident. It flips the narrative completely as we get the real story and Carrie’s full arc, from planning a future for her family to losing everything.
While she might not get justice in the end, she is the reason why Marissa Irvine (Sarah Snook) discovers the truth about her husband. This leads to not only her son being protected, just as Carrie asked before she was killed by Peter, but also to Peter’s death, caused by his wife. Despite Detective Alcaras (Michael Peña) figuring out what actually happened, he decides to close the case and do what’s best for Milo by allowing Marissa to keep her son, since she was unaware of Peter’s actions.
Read Awards Radar’s full interview with the actress below (and her prior one with Joey about Uncle Frank here), where we talk about all of the significant moments of her solo episode, her message to anyone facing a similar struggle, how she feels about her character’s fate, and more.
To start off, how beneficial was it for you to play a younger version of your character as she prepared for her baby?
Sophia Lillis: I mean, yeah, actually that was helpful for me in order to get into my character because this was a pretty new experience for me playing a mother, and to kind of play her not having a child, which is something that I can relate to, into having a child, really helped me see her process and her grief, getting to actually experience it and go through it instead of the after.
Was there a moment that you were most grateful that you got to actually show on the screen for audiences?
I’m happy that they got to see just the little moment that she had with her boyfriend and see this life that she wanted, that she kind of had, even though she was living in a trailer and not having a lot of money, she still had these dreams, and it kind of humanized her. That was also the first scene that you see of her in that episode, and you just kind of see who she used to be before kidnapping a child, and seeing that first and foremost, I think, is a really important moment.
Definitely, and tell me what you think was going through her head after she sees her boyfriend arrested, as she’s struggling to take the crib out of the car, and then smashing it to pieces.
Well, I think she’s already dealt with so much with her childhood, and her leaving gave her hope. The child gave her hope, and then when it all comes crashing down, I think it’s a feeling that she felt before all too well, and she knows all too well, and I think she loses hope there just for that small moment. She realizes that it’s not going to be that easy, and it’s not something that maybe is fit for her. The only thing that’s keeping her going from that point forward is that child. Losing all other good parts of her life, I think it makes the child and her connection to the child more meaningful for her. And so, losing him is like losing a part of herself, I think.
After losing her son, she reaches a low point where she deletes all of her photos on social media, only to post that she’s dead, Josephine Murphy is dead, before taking down all of the stuff in her room. For anyone who might be facing a similar low point, what do you hope they learn from her story?
Well, I’ve felt very similar to her a few times in my life as well. I think everyone kind of goes through really low moments, and it feels like there’s no way out. What I realized after therapy and just kind of going through it is you’re going to have really great moments in your life, and you’re always going to feel like, oh, this isn’t going to last. So, even good moments feel kind of bittersweet in a weird way, but it’s the same thing for the lows, that it’s not going to last, and you can tell that with her that she still has that hope in there, she just doesn’t really know it. She still has this fight in her to keep going, but sometimes it doesn’t really feel that way, and I just think it’s that fight that kind of keeps us going, and I hope other people can take that away, that it’s not going to last, the low moments too.
She goes from saying, “I’m no one now, so you can have me, I’m dead,” to “I don’t want to feel dead anymore,” which I think is such a beautiful arc. Why was that so important to show in her story, how she got from point A to point B?
I think she’s been so discarded as someone who can’t learn and who has some issues that no one quite understands, but to see her actually go through this process of planning this idea of getting her child back, it’s actually a very smart thing. She’s planned this whole elaborate story, a whole elaborate plan to take her child back, and she’s actually really smart. It’s just that people underestimate her, and to kind of see her determination of “I don’t want to be dead anymore,” that determination that she has, I think it’s something that I really look up to her with. I wish I had that kind of fight in me. I wish I had that kind of determination. It’s something that I think is a great thing to see, to see this side of her that no one else sees.
And do you think that kind of came out because it involved her son? As you said, all the smart things she thought of, I’m like, how did she think of that? But it was her son, the most important thing to her.
She didn’t really have anything else, so this is something that she focused her entire life towards because, for her, he is her life.
How different do you think everything would have been for Josephine if her parents had acknowledged her condition and supported her the way that she needed, gotten her the help and therapy that she needed?
Yes, that is something that, I think, if everyone had, the world would be a bit different and her life included. I mean, you kind of see a bit of that with Michael Peña’s character, having a child with special needs, who needs a little bit of extra help. It’s tough to find that; it’s tough to find support, and it’s costly, which is terrible. The fact that we can’t give enough support for everyone out there is devastating, but I think it’s necessary. You see that with his process, in his role, and you kind of see that in mine as well, what would happen if you don’t get the support you need, if someone is struggling in their life and needs a little bit of extra help and is not fully understood by other people. But there’s always a chance if you give it, if you allow it.
The scene where she first meets Milo, what do you think that moment meant for her personally?
Well, she meets this kid who kind of sees the world the way that she does, and this is something that she hasn’t had before. She’s always been called crazy throughout her entire life and then, to see a kid who kind of deals with the same thing and be able to tell this kid, “You’re not crazy,” is something I think she’s had this idea of in her head, this imaginary moment in her head where she tells this to a kid or someone tells this to her when she was younger, and the chance that she gets to do that to this kid, I think was very… I wouldn’t say healing, but this is something that she’s always wanted to do. It was a very big turning point in her life because now there’s someone out there like her, and in that moment, I think she’s like, I don’t want to let this go.
It’s a beautiful full-circle moment for her character to actually be able to do that, because every time she was called crazy, it just drove me crazy because I’m like, you’re just not seeing her. It happened so often, and then we finally found out the truth about what happened with the car accident. We see her saying that she heard the baby crying, and while the nurse doesn’t actually call her crazy, like her parents do, she insists she must be mistaken.
She must be mistaken, yeah.
Do you think that just made her think of all the times that she was never believed, even though in this case, she was right? She was dismissed, but she knew deep down what had happened, even if she didn’t visually see it.
Yeah, and then also, there’s an extra layer there that I didn’t really pick up the first time I read it, but I remember as I was doing it, there were moments with her mother where she always calls her crazy, but it’s also a genetic trait. So there’s this thought of, does her mother have this as well?
Oh, I didn’t even think of that.
Projecting. So there is actually an extra layer there of people who could have supported her, who also is going through the same thing, but is not giving it, not giving the support. It’s generational trauma, you know how it goes. But it was really interesting that the people that could have helped her didn’t, and I think she’s just trying to give the support that she wasn’t given.
Were there any other scenes that you kind of realized something only as you were stepping into her shoes or into the scene that you didn’t realize with the script?
One moment that I didn’t really think about until I was there was actually — well, two things; I think it was the kids, working with the kids was special because I had never done that before. I babysit that other kid as well, and I didn’t think too much about the moments with him, but I don’t think she’s been around kids before either. I don’t think she’s really dealt through that, and working with the kids and working with him specifically, it was really special because it really made me understand, I think she is actually kind of feeling in the moment of what it’s like to be a mother with this kid. I thought that was really important for her and for me, thinking about what it would be like to be a mother, and I think working with the kids was really special for me because it actually made me understand. Duke, the kid who played my kid, is such a sweet [child], very talented and I would not know what it would be like to be that age and be on stage, to have to be on camera, kind of deal with the hours and everything, and being told what to do constantly, but he was just so spectacular and I got to have moments with him off set too. I think that was a really special moment for me because I really understood kind of what she felt like towards him and just raising a child generally. I never quite understood, but I think after that, I was like, ‘Oh, this is why she wanted to be a mother,’ and there’s a special connection that you have. And so, working with those scenes, I think, was really special for me.
Before she dies, Carrie warns Marissa about Peter, asks her to protect Milo, mother-to-mother. She didn’t get to actually finish telling her the truth before she was killed, but do you think that she got what she needed in the end, as in what she needed to do? Or do you personally wish she had gotten some more closure, even if she met the same fate?
Well, I don’t know, I wish I didn’t die. Like, why? There’s a whole other episode. You’re like, well, rude. I don’t think she knew that she got what she needed, but I think it was given in the end. I think it ended up going along the same path that would have happened if she had just told her, and I think it was kind of inevitable, knowing Lacy’s character and his violent tendencies. I can’t really imagine another way, and also, just bringing a gun into that whole situation was probably not a good idea in the first place. Little girl swinging that around, put that down! Yeah, no, it was really funny playing that scene. That was my second scene in the entire shooting process. That was my second day. It was a lot, and then I never got to see them again. I worked on my own after that, which is okay.
All episodes of All Her Fault are now streaming on Peacock.
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