Hollywood has a new star, and her name is Sophie Wilde. After a chilling turn in A24’s psychological horror, Talk To Me, the 26-year-old actor has linked up with Ripley Parker to head up Netflix’s coming-of-age series, Everything Now. She talks demon-orgys, pre-release nerves and finding joy in the mundane moments amidst the madness.

I first meet Sophie Wilde in the crowded glam room of her Wonderland cover shoot. Before we can finish our introductions, her face scrunches up in glee at the flash of my toothgem. “Girl, same!” shrieks the 26-year-old actor, gesturing to the gems littering her own pearly whites. Her enthusiasm over the viral beauty trend that’s currently engulfing TikTok and Instagram makes one thing clear: she is a Gen Z girl’s girl. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons she’s been able to draw in avid Netflix bingers with her leading role in teen drama, Everything Now.

Raised in the Inner West suburb of Australia’s Sydney, the rising star formed an obsession with acting after watching Audrey Hepburn in classics such as Roman Holiday, and that passion only swelled as she attended the theatre with her grandparents throughout her youth. Her grandparents may have been the ones to expose her to the world of the arts, but it was her parents – aka her self-proclaimed “best friends slash mentors” and loves of her life – that ultimately pushed her off the precipice and into its glittering abyss. “When I was in high school those seeds of self-doubt came in and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t be an actor and I should do a ‘real job’,” she contemplates as she joins me over Zoom from a friend’s Notting Hill apartment a few days after her shoot. “I wasn’t actually going to do it for a while. I was going to go to Sydney University and study International Studies because I wanted to be a member of the United Nations. They’re very different lives, I know. In my gap year, I had to come home for my grandma’s funeral and my dad was like, ‘What are you going to do with your life?’ And I was like, ‘Maybe I want to audition for NIDA [The National Institute of Dramatic Art].’ And he was like, ‘Well, I think you should.’”

With her dad’s encouragement echoing in her ears, Wilde ditched the dream of world peace-keeping and found herself on the art school’s doorstep. Three years later and with a failed yet informative debut audition for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power under her belt, the freshly-trained actor was released into the world, hungry to conquer it. Not long after that, Wilde made her feature film debut in a genre she never planned on dominating. “I’m not a horror lover myself. I can’t actually watch horror films because I have an overactive imagination and I’ll be like, ‘I am getting possessed.’ When I was a kid, I watched Paranormal Activity and that film actually ruined my life. I’d just moved into my new home and I was so traumatised that my mum and my auntie had to pretend they got an exorcist to come to our house and exorcise the house. I would have been 11. She was traumatised.” Regardless of any childhood anguish, Wilde took to the big screen as Mia in the blood-curdling psychological horror, Talk To Me, powered by cult classic-makers A24. Luckily for Wilde, she found that sinking her teeth into a horror helped to lift the veil of mystique that makes it so chilling – well, almost. “I think [working on a horror] demystifies the process a bit. But, there was one day where I was like, ‘Oh my God! That is a lot.’ We were in this hospital room and they had 40 naked people covered in blood and goo and some of them had these masks on. It was this demon orgy that I had to run through. When I got home I got in the shower and was like, ‘Fuck, that was a full-on day.’” Wilde may have found her work in the field unnerving at times, heck, even horrifying. To the delight of viewers, her performance had the same effect. After touring the film through the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and 2023 South by Southwest festival to critical review, and generating enough hype with her harrowing portrayal to encourage creators Danny and Michael Philippou to start work on sequel, Talk 2 Me, the star’s debut lead was deemed a success. Clearly, everything Wilde touches turns to shimmering gold. If Talk To Me wasn’t the proof, her career defining display in Everything Now, surely is.

Reaching the coveted Netflix Top 10 list upon its debut, Wilde’s next turn was as Mia Polanco, the slightly awkward teen fresh out of eating disorder recovery in Ripley Parker’s nerve-touching series that pays homage to the illness. The messy, hormone-fuelled little sister of Sex Education – surprisingly, it does get messier than Sex Education – takes viewers on a whirlwind tour through the tribulations of Mia’s teenhood, with her larger-than-life friends and not-so-perfect parents stumbling behind her. Yes, it gets chaotic. Crazily and authentically so. That’s just what you get when you entrust a group of talented 20-somethings with a project like this. “It’s always a little bit anxiety-inducing when something is out there in the world. You’re kind of bearing your soul in a way. But it’s been amazing and I’m so proud of that show and the group of individuals that made it. They’ve allowed a group of young people to take ownership of a project and I think there’s something quite inspiring about that. We had so many first-time directors who were all really young. Ripley, the creator, is 22. It feels like this beautiful thing that we’ve all made.”

Wilde’s not wrong. From alcohol-fuelled parties that descend into blackouts and bust-ups between friends to sapphic love triangles that could give Bella Swan and her vampire-wolf entanglement a run for its money, the show is in fact beautiful. As a post-rehab Mia nervously navigates a bucket list dedicated to catching up with her peers who have been socially and sexually advancing since she left, Gen Z viewers will find themselves wincing at the relatability of each and every block in her path. With friends Becca [played by Lauryn Ajufo], Cameron [played by Harry Cadby], Will [played by Noah Thomas] and Alison [played by Niamh McCormack] attempting to blindly assist her, the show vividly illustrates the angsty and complex paradox that is teenage friendship. Wilde is sure that the comradery we witness is less a masterful feat of acting and more an extension of their off-camera bond, tight as can be. “Oh, we’re so close. We’re honestly like a little family now,” she smiles. “It’s crazy because it’s been a year since we shot the show, but we have a group chat and everyone always messages each other. We’re still very much in contact. I was with them last night. They went to a little party and then I met up with them after. We had a little dance.”

Party planning and chatter may be rife among the cast in their aptly named group chat, Cricklewood to Hollywood (the cast was put up in a hotel in the unsuspecting North-West London location as they filmed the project). But, talk about the show has also been in abundance on Twitter – and there is a particular on-screen dynamic that serves as the fangirls’ unwavering focus. “Babe, I’m team Malison. I don’t know if I should say, but I’m team Malison. I love those bitches.” Wilde has a twinkle in her eye when discussing the one-sided yet sweeter-than-candy romance between Mia and divinely dopey It-girl, Allison, that’s seen Twitter flooded with intense shipping and cries for justice – no spoilers here, you will have to tune in to find out why. “I feel like Niamh and I have undeniable chemistry. Niamh’s my fucking best friend, we became so close on that show. I think everyone kind of loves an enemies-to-lovers storyline. You always kind of root for that. I think Alison is such an interesting, complex character. But you can really see that this girl has been in love with Mia forever and just hidden it in the most horrendous way. I get it and I love them.”

The internet may be in meltdown over the future of Wilde and McCormack’s fictional counterparts, which were left hanging in the balance at the end of the 8-episode-long series. But one thing about the show was left a lot clearer: If and when a second season plays out, Wilde will spearhead it with intent. She delicately manoeuvres through a topic as sensitive as it gets, using her role to accurately cover an infliction so many teens are suffering with. One which is so often failed by its on-screen portrayals. “From the get-go, I felt a certain duty of care. I recognise that this disorder has been represented in a way that’s not been the most positive in the past. We really wanted to make a show that highlighted the reality of the situation. Our intention was never to glamorise it, which I think has often been done in the past. Eating disorders can be very challenging and very triggering to watch and consume, so I had this continuing anxiety about how people would respond to the show. But it’s been really nice to see that people are like, ‘Oh, my God, thank you. This has actually been dealt with in a way that’s so informative and so real.’ But I think everyone was working towards the same goal of wanting to do this well and do it right.”

The fans have spoken – right is exactly what Everything Now is. With that strong reassurance secured, Wilde is free to look towards her new chapter. If you assumed that involves another leading role or two, it looks like you might be right – after all, the shoe definitely fits. “I’ve got a couple of little things in the works. I feel like next year is going to be a busy one, but I’m excited,” she coyly responds, keen to make sure she doesn’t give anything away. In the meantime, Wilde’s plans are a lot tamer. “This year has been a year of pause. I was like, ‘I need to go on hiatus.’ A lot of my projects have come out, but it’s been nice to actually live a bit of life. I’m excited for next year so I can dig back into the work, but I’ve mainly been maxing, relaxing and living life. You know, this job is quite intense and you’re rarely at home. It’s been really nice to see my friends for an extended period of time and do normal things. I feel like when you’re working it kind of limits a lot of the things you can do. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a gym membership and I can go to the gym and use it.’ Or I can do all these random things that I wouldn’t be able to do usually.” Wilde is clearly enjoying the thrills of normal life, and she deserves to. Fronting two major projects is no easy task to undertake. There is no doubt she’ll be back, though. After all, what would the big screen do without its newest Gen Z darling?