“The 100” Exclusive: Sara Thompson Talks Josephine Lightbourne, Creating the Character & Fan Response
This past season on The CW’s badass series The 100, fans were introduced to a new character, Josephine Lightbourne. As a member of The Primes, her character had survived in Sanctum for over 200 years when Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and the others arrived and shook things up. OMFGTV had the opportunity to jump on the phone with the actress who brings her to life, Sara Thompson (“Burden of Truth”) to talk all things Josephine.
Sara was aware of The 100 before she was cast, but the real driving force in her sending in an audition tape was Richard Harmon. A working project brought the two together and it is there where he told her she would be a perfect fit for the series.
“We were working on a movie and he was telling me about the show and said that they were looking for a character,” Thompson tells us. “He was like, ‘You know what? You’d actually be pretty good for it.'” Turns out, he was right. Sara’s mom is also a huge fan of the show and was pulling for her daughter to get the role.
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The role of Josephine is unique because Sara had to share the role with Eliza Taylor. The two had to work together closely to figure out how Josephine would say and do things. “We’d hang out. We’d honestly read lines together, and send each other voice notes back and forth,” she says. “You know, like ‘How would you say this?’ ‘Is there anything else you would add to it?’ It was cool, we got to work a lot together and it was mostly just a lot of hanging out and sending voice notes.”
The two also studied scenes the other had shot to get an idea of how they’re both playing the role. “When I shot my first scene, she got to watch it and kind of study it, as did I. I got to watch what she did with it, and then we just collaborated together with what we thought would work.”
Sara was nervous how fans would respond to Josephine, but she was pleasantly surprised by how well she’s been embraced. “Everyone’s a fan of Clarke, rightfully so. She’s saved her people many times. So I was like, here I come in, I have to take over her body. I thought, okay everyone’s going to hate me.” But the fan response has been quite the opposite of that. “It’s been so amazing! Everyone just — they love to hate me! It was kind of exactly what I’d hoped for, so it was awesome.”
Fans have loved Sara’s performance as Josephine so much that she has already been invited to a The 100 convention, which she is VERY thrilled about. “I am very excited!,” Thompson exclaims. “I haven’t done conventions yet, it’ll be my first.” She can’t wait to be back with the cast and of course, to meet all the fans.
Josephine Lightbourne is one of the most complex villains The 100 has seen, and Sara loved every second of playing the complex character. “I say this all the time, it was like my most challenging, rewarding job I’ve had so far. Because I had so much to work with. Not only was she evil-ish, she had so much history.
“She was the way she was because of her father and Gabriel testing on her,” she continues. “The fact that they brought her back into the world so many times, and every time she lost a bit of herself and her humanity.” Sara is very proud of how the whole storyline came together.
A lot of actors learn things from the characters they play and try to incorporate it into their lives, but Sara did the opposite. Instead of taking something from a character like Josephine, she put a little bit of her own sassiness into the character.
“I like to apply a quick wit that I like to think I share with her, and sassy comebacks, and the eye-rolls and the smirks. That’s all me, all things I do in my every day life. So it was fun. I got to bring this side that, you know the bossiness that I have to push down sometimes, I got to bring it out.”
Want to see more Sara Thompson on your screens? Then you’re in luck because she’s in two upcoming movies! Night Hunter, which comes out September 6, and The Return, which will be out next year!
The 100 will return for its seventh and final season in 2020 on The CW.