Sofia Carson Does Not See a Problem With the Racism and Misogyny in ‘Purple Hearts’: ‘We Wanted to Represent Both Sides’
Since Purple Hearts premiered on July 29, it has become one of the most popular movies on Netflix. Despite its popularity, the film has also been criticized for its political messaging. In a new interview with Variety, Purple Hearts actor Sofia Carson defended some of the politics in the movie, saying, “We wanted to represent both sides as accurately as possible.”
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Purple Hearts.]
Sofia Carson defended the politics in ‘Purple Hearts’
In Purple Hearts, Carson plays Cassie Salazar and Nicholas Galitzine appears as Luke Morrow. Cassie is a liberal singer-songwriter while Luke is a conservative Marine.
Because she was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, Luke and Cassie enter a marriage of convenience so Cassie can have access to Luke’s health insurance benefits. Purple Hearts focuses on Cassie and Luke falling in love despite their political differences.
“Why I fell in love with the movie is that it’s a love story but it’s so much more than that,” Carson told Variety. “It’s two hearts, one red, one blue, two worlds apart, who are really raised to hate each other. Through the power of love, they learn to lead with empathy and compassion and love each other and turn into this beautiful shade of purple.”
Sofia Carson ‘wanted to represent’ both political parties
When Purple Hearts begins, Cassie dislikes Luke for his political views and for putting up with his friends’ problematic comments, the most jarring being, “We’re good enough to fight for your a**, but not enough to touch it?” and “This one is to life, love and hunting down some godd*** Arabs, baby!”
Luke meanwhile makes fun of Cassie for her political activism and condemns her mother’s immigration status. By the end of the film, their political differences are seemingly forgotten, and Cassie has stopped calling out the behavior around her.
In the interview with Variety, Carson defended what was shown in the movie.
“We wanted to represent both sides as accurately as possible. What I think I’ve learned to do as an artist is separate myself from all of that and just listen to what the world is feeling and reacting to with the film. That has been so beautifully overwhelming and so many people have felt seen or are comforted by this movie. That’s all we could want filmmakers and as artists,” Carson said.
‘Purple Hearts’ explores healthcare in the US
In addition to playing Cassie in Purple Hearts, Carson also served as one of the film’s producers. Speaking with Variety, Carson explained all of the research that went into portraying a character with type 1 diabetes in the U.S.
“The more that we learned about diabetes, the more that we wanted to really represent what it means to be a Type 1 Diabetic in 2022 in the United States, as accurately and as vulnerably as possible,” Carson told Variety.
She continued, “Working with Laura [Pavlakovich], meeting with doctors and doing my research about what they face every single day to literally survive — to sacrifice everything they have to get the insulin they need to wake up the next day — is devastatingly unfair.”
Purple Hearts is available to stream on Netflix.
