Netflix 'The School for Good and Evil': Kerry Washington, Charlize Theron take over fairy tales in fantasy movie

The international bestselling book series “The School For Good and Evil” from Soman Chainani has finally received the Hollywood treatment with a Netflix movie directed by Paul Feig, starring Sophia Anne Caruso, Sofia Wylie, Kerry Washington, Charlize Theron, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh.

The School For Good and Evil film’s story transports you to the village of Gavaldon where we meet two rather unlikely friends, Agatha (Sofia Wylie) and Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso). Agatha is mocked for seemingly being a witch, while fairy tale-loving Sophie believes she’s destined to leave her dreary life and become a princess that changes the world.

At a bookstore, Agatha and Sophie learn about The School for Good and Evil, where all great fairy tales begin. It’s a school created by two brothers to “keep the balance between good and evil in the fairy tale world.” Sensing this could be her ticket out of Gavaldon, Sophie writes a letter, pleading to be admitted to the school, and leaves it at a wishing tree.

One night a magical force sweeps into the woods of Gavaldon and picks up both Agatha and Sophie, but Sophie is dropped in the evil part of the school run by Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron), while Agatha is dropped in good led by Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington). Sophie and Agatha are then convinced they can change the mind of the School Master (Laurence Fishburne) that they were dropped in the wrong parts of the school, as a dangerous and dark figure reemerges and puts the entire school’s future in jeopardy.

Power of friendship between women

A core aspect of the story is the power of the friendship between Agatha and Sophie, in addition to sort of poking fun at the way women are often depicted in classic fairy tale stories, labeled wicked due to their ambition or completely passive and just waiting for their prince charming to come and save the day.

“We both kind of took from personal experiences of friendships that we've had,” Sofia Wylie told Yahoo Canada. “I've had specific friendships in my life where, especially my sister being prominent in my mind right now, someone who I love so much and who I love more deeply than any other romantic partner that I've ever had in the past, or any crush that I've had. There is such a bond there.”

“It's not something that we do see a lot in film and television. That was really exciting…and I think it's just great to be able to take our personal experiences and bring that into something that we portray on screen.”

“I've certainly pulled from personal experiences too, and personal friendships,” Sophia Anne Caruso added. “But Sofia and I became really good friends on set and our connection, I think, comes through on the screen, hopefully.”

That friendship is also something that particularly attracted famed director Paul Feig to the project.

“The story of this great friendship between these two young women, that's kind of my catnip, I love any stories about that, and this was done in such a wonderful way,” Feig said. “It's such a big canvas that it was just kind of too much to pass up.”

When it came to developing these two lead characters, author Soman Chainani said that he sees them as two sides of himself.

“They were two halves of what I was trying to explore in my own life and I think of them as two halves of a whole," Chainani said.

“Agatha was the part that was craving acceptance, that was craving to be the hero, to be the prince or the princess that everybody loves, and yet never felt that way. I always felt kind of more on the villainous side inside. Then Sophie represented the character that had all those things, all the things that a prince or princess would want, but then is corrupted by them.”

'I created the version of Agatha that I saw'

Of course, there are also expectations from fans of this beloved book series, who have spent years imagining what this world looks like, but that’s where Paul Feig identifies that Soman Chainani’s involvement was critically important.

“I would constantly be calling Soman and sending him things like, what do you think about this? Do you like this? I need to cut this one thing out but what do you think about replacing it with this? And what do the fans want, what are their favourite scenes? What are their favourite lines?” Feig explained. “We all want this book to go beyond the fans and to bring a whole new fan base in and I really didn't want anybody to have to know the books or have to do homework before they see the movie, they should be able to just drop right into it and enjoy it.”

“That's where I could kind of be the guardrails, where Paul just could fulfill his creative vision, what he wanted to do with his interpretation, and at the same time, I can be there and be like, ‘well, here are the key scenes, here's these dialogue lines people are expecting,’” Chainani added. “Kind of being like the adviser and making sure that, ultimately, when push came to shove, we had a version that we knew that fans would love.”

For Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie, they both read the first book and were not only able to pick out elements of their characters descriptions to use, but they were able to develop their own interpretation of the characters.

“I wanted to sort of keep it my own,...I finished the first book and I plucked some of my favourite things about her from the book that I wanted to sort of take, and then the rest was kind of just my interpretation of it,” Caruso said. “I wasn't trying to pretend that I was Sophie from the book, I'm my version of Sophie, and that's what you get.”

“I think the sign of a really good book or good character is, no matter how they're described, physically, you can place yourself in that role, and I definitely was able to do that,” Wylie added. “When I was reading the first book for pre-production, I could just see myself as Agatha and even though I am not super similar to her in every single way, there's so much vulnerability to her and just humanity there that I definitely could see myself in that role.”

“But I also agree with Sophia Anne, there's a certain separation that has to occur to where you take that character and make it your own, and I had to try my best to bring Agatha to life, and it might not match every person's imagination that they created for Agatha, who she is in their heads, but I think for me, I created the version of Agatha that I saw.”

'It can't be all good and all evil, we're all just human'

The first thing that has to be pointed out is that The School For Good and Evil is visually stunning, with elaborate and ornate sets and costumes that are intensely appealing to see.

If you aren’t familiar with Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie as actors, they are both absolutely exceptional in The School For Good and Evil, just as great as the striking collection of seasoned actors in the cast, like Kerry Washington, Charlize Theron, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh.

“Always the hardest part of my job is getting the casting right because then if I do that, everybody's going to kind of mix and match, and be great together,” Paul Feig said. “Whatever moments of worry I had, like oh no the young cast is going to be working with heavy hitters like Charlize and Kerry and Laurence and Michelle, they just had this confidence and this enthusiasm, and professionalism, that if they were nervous, I had no idea.”

This concept that Soman Chainani developed to play in the world of fairy tales, especially in its analysis and critique of the story forms we grew up with, is endearing, even though it can get to be a lot to watch at once with a lengthy runtime of just under two and a half hours.

“I think [what's] lovely about this movie is the idea that Agatha goes into this situation saying like, ‘Guys your world is nuts it can't be all good and all evil, we're all just human,’” Feig said. “I think that's an important message to get across in these times when we seem to be very, very polarized,...in a fun way that can make people go like, OK maybe we're not all one thing or the other.”