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In 2019, Sofia Carson is thriving. She has a few Disney Channel movies and shows under her belt, she's signed to Hollywood Records and Repulic Records, and now she's starring in the must-watch Freeform series Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. But it wasn't always success after success—the 25-year-old Hollywood starlet revealed that she once went to 200 auditions (yes, 200!) in one year.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Sofia shared her story about her path to stardom, which included going to 200 auditions in one year
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Sofia shared her story about her path to stardom. "Ever since I was a little girl something in me always knew that I was somehow just meant to do this," she said. "Whether it was today or whenever the time was going to come, I knew that I had to do this for the rest of my life, so I never stopped."
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When she first moved to LA, the singer and actress was focused on pursuing music, meeting with countless record labels. One label asked her to submit a sort of album demo, and so she never stopped until she was done. “Every single night, I was up until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, on my piano in my dorm, trying not to wake up my roommate,” she laughed. “I would write a song every night. I wrote over [...] 25 songs [that month]."
"I kept auditioning, I kept writing music, trying to improve my craft every single day, and I think that is what really truly helped me get through it," Sofia on getting rejected
After radio silence from the label, they finally told her they weren't interested. Still, she continued to work hard. “It was obviously heartbreaking, but I was also auditioning, every single day,” she shared. “I think I probably [went] on 200 auditions in that year.” While auditioning for a Disney series Liv and Maddie, she received a call from the president of Disney, who asked her to come in and read for a new Disney Channel movie they were producing.
“I walked into the room, and Kenny Ortega was there, which to me was crazy, because he’s absolutely iconic,” she explained. It was the audition of a lifetime, but again, she got a no because she was "too green" for the role. “Of course, it’s always incredibly difficult to hear the word ‘no,’ because you want to go 'Am I not good enough? Why not me? Or, what did they have that I didn’t have?'"
However, that didn't stop her. "I kept auditioning, I kept writing music, trying to improve my craft every single day, and I think that is what really truly helped me get through it." One month later, she got another call to read for a lead role in a Disney Channel movie—the same one they originally told her she was too green for.
And that is how Sofia was cast as Evie in Disney Channel’s Descendants, the role that would catapult her to complete stardom and would lead her into being signed to Republic Records and Hollywood Records just one week later. According to the singer and actress, there's a recipe for success. “There’s a certain magic to this world,” she explained. “It’s a combination of preparation—preparing as much as you physically can—passion, luck and a little bit of pixie dust, and timing.”