Felicity Huffman's daughter lands first big acting role since college admissions scandal
Felicity Huffman’s daughter isn’t letting the college admissions scandal ruin her dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress.
Sophia Macy is among the talent cast in the second season of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot. The 19-year-old will appear in the episode titled “Among the Untrodden” with Abbie Hern. Other actors set to appear in the upcoming season of the CBS All Access series include Billy Porter, Tony Hale, Chris Meloni and Jenna Elfman.
Sophia shared the exciting news on social media, saying she had “been wanting to talk about this for a MINUTE!” She also called herself “grateful” for getting to work with episode co-star Hern, a British actress and graduate of Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Sophia went on to share some of the congratulations messages she received for the casting, her first big gig. (The recent high school grad’s previous credits are “Brunette Girl,” in the 2017 indie film The Layover, and Lily in the short “Aurora” that same year.) The messages included a funny one from her younger sister, Georgia Macy, 17.
Sophia’s role is also her first big gig since her life was upended by her mother’s involvement with the college admissions scandal. In March, Huffman was arrested by the FBI — at the L.A. home she shares with husband William H. Macy and their two daughters — for paying corrupt college admissions expert William “Rick” Singer $15,000 to boost her elder daughter’s SAT scores.
The FBI said that Sophia had no idea that her mother had her score fixed. Huffman, who admitted her guilt and has already served her time, publicly apologized to her daughter, whom she said has a learning disability. In a letter to the judge in her case, Huffman explained that her daughter was “passionate about majoring in theater” but struggled with math. Singer told Huffman that if Sophia’s “math SAT scores didn’t rise dramatically, none of the colleges she was interested in would even consider her auditions,” leading Huffman to pay to have them changed to better her chances.
In a letter Shameless star William wrote to the judge on his wife’s behalf, he revealed that “Sophia has certainly paid the dearest price” in the scandal. He recalled how the teen’s unnamed dream college — one that “ironically doesn’t require SAT scores” — rescinded its invitation to audition for its theater program, after she had traveled to the school, after Huffman’s arrest. Sophia called her parents “from the airport in hysterics, begging us to ‘do something, please, please do something.’ From the devastation of that day, Sophia,” who took a gap year from college and worked on stage over the summer, “is slowly regaining her equilibrium and getting on with her life,” her dad added.
Meanwhile, high school senior Georgia — for whom Huffman considered running the scheme again but changed her mind — was recently accepted at Vassar.
And Huffman is getting on with her life as well. Unlike Lori Loughlin who has a heap of legal drama in front of her, Huffman admitted her guilt and put the whole thing behind her last year. She started 2020 with a clean slate — and, perhaps, her own acting opportunities to come. Crisis PR expert Howard Bragman recently told Yahoo Entertainment he knows “producers who adore” the Academy Award nominated actress and want “to hire her and who are looking for the right role for her. I’ve talked to them. One hundred percent.”
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