Starring Me, Sophia Sun

Ever since I was old enough to hold a remote, I’ve loved television. I was always pretending to be the star of this show or that show. Young, old, human, or animal—I would imitate them all. 

I wanted to be the kind of actress that people recognize on the street and ask to take selfies with. I just knew I was destined to be a star! 

Living in Los Angeles, a lot of my neighbors work in TV and film, so this wasn’t an impossible dream. But when I finally got my big break, things didn’t end up like I thought they would . . .

“More algae, please!” I said in a tiny, bubbly voice. I was watching that popular cartoon series Oceans Away and pretending to be a sea urchin. I love speaking in silly voices. My mom claims, “Sophia, you could make a teacup talk!”

Just then, the doorbell rang. It was our neighbor Bruce. He stars in those Squeaky Clean Mop commercials, the ones where he’s best friends with a stuffed animal named Squeakers the Mouse.

“Is Sophia here?” he asked. “There’s a problem I think she can solve.”

Well, that got my attention. I put the TV on mute to listen.

“Do you think she’d like to be in a commercial?” Bruce looked my way and winked at me. I’d told him about my dream to be on TV. “The kid who was cast got sick on the set. Probably from eating four egg salad sandwiches! Anyway, we only have one day to reshoot the scene—tomorrow.”

Instantly, I leapt off the couch. “Please say yes, Mom, pleeeease!”

My mother shook her head. “I’m not sure this is something Sophia would want to do . . .” 

“MOM!” 

She couldn’t keep a straight face. “OK,” my mother said, laughing. “But only if you finish your homework first.”

“I’m doing it now,” I assured her as I pivoted toward my room.

“Sophia!” Bruce called after me. “Here’s the script. You play Random Kid.”

I rushed through my homework, then read the script. In the commercial, I’d be standing on the sidewalk when a van crashed into a fire hydrant. Water would spew onto the street, and I’d yell, “Who’s gonna mop that up?” Then Bruce would appear with Squeakers on his shoulder. After gawking at the flood, he’d hold up a mop and say, “My Squeaky Clean Mop, that’s who!”

I couldn’t wait to be in front of the camera, playing my very first role. I rehearsed my line 100 different ways. 

“WHO’S gonna mop that up?”

“Who’s GONNA mop that up?”

“Who’s gonna MOP that up?”

I just knew that if I nailed the scene, I’d be discovered, and it would be the start of my glorious acting career. Fans would flock to me, and everyone would know my name.

“WHO’S GONNA MOP THAT UP?!!!”

The next morning, when we reached the set, Mom headed straight to get coffee at the long table full of free food for the cast and crew (though I noticed that there were no egg salad sandwiches). Normally, you couldn’t keep me away from the doughnuts, but I was too in awe to eat.

The set was huge. Heavy metal lights hung from the ceiling. The pretend sidewalk was lined by flat storefronts with nothing behind them. Dozens of people were scurrying around, hauling cables and whispering into microphones sticking out of their giant headphones.

I had no idea so much went into making one commercial.

“Sophia, over here!” Bruce was talking to a woman with spiked hair and torn jeans that looked expensive. “This is Gina, our director. Gina, this is Sophia Sun, the girl I told you about.”

“I assume you know your line?” Gina asked sharply. 

I nodded, attempting to look confident. But the truth was, I was starting to get nervous. Why had I thought I could do this? Bruce was a real actor. But I had never been in front of the camera.

When she smiled, Gina looked slightly less scary. “Sophia, go to wardrobe and change your clothes. You look like you’re 10.”

“I am 10,” I sputtered. 

“Well, we need you to look younger,” she said, adding, “now hurry. You’ll need to visit hair and makeup too.”

Wardrobe! Hair! Makeup! This was really happening.

The wardrobe person put me in green overalls, and the hairstylist gave me pigtails. Green was my least favorite color . . . and pigtails? I never wore my hair that way. I didn’t look like myself. 

And suddenly, I didn’t feel much like myself either. 

At last, it was time. My heart was beating so fast I wondered if anyone could hear it. “Who’s gonna mop that up?” I whispered to myself over and over again. This was my big moment, and I couldn’t mess it up.

Mom waved encouragingly. I offered her a weak smile.

“Sophia,” said a man holding a microphone on a long pole, “count to 10 for a sound check.” 

I started to count, not really sure what a sound check was. Then the man yelled, “Louder, Sophia. We can barely hear you.”

Huh? Where had my voice gone?!

“You’re going to be great,” Bruce assured me. He picked up one stuffed mouse from a table that held several identical Squeakers and tucked it in his pocket. “Are you nervous?”

“Not nervous at all,” I lied.

Then the assistant director called, “Silence on the set! Scene two, take one.” And Gina ordered, “Action!” 

Cameras on and pointed at me, I stood on the fake sidewalk and watched a speeding van plow into the fire hydrant. I had to pretend to see water spewing into the air, even though there was nothing. Water would be added later with computers, Gina explained. At least I was good at pretending.

However, when it came time for me to speak, I opened my mouth and no sound came out.

“Cut!” Gina shouted. “Sophia, did you forget your line?”

“I’m sorry,” I blathered. “It won’t happen again.” 

“Silence on the set!” the assistant director said. “Scene two, take two.”

“Action!” Gina yelled.

Everything happened exactly like before, only now, when it came time for me to say my line, I started giggling nervously and couldn’t stop. 

We tried again. The next time I nailed my line, but Gina asked, “Sophia, why are you scrunching up your face like you have a stomachache?”

By the time the assistant director called out “Scene two, take 17,” I was so anxious that I mixed up my words and said, “Gonna who’s up that mop?” 

“Cut!” Gina ordered. She looked exasperated.

I had been so good practicing alone in my room. But here on the set with everyone staring at me, I just couldn’t get it right. I wished I could disappear.

Three hours later, a weary assistant director announced, “Thirty-minute break!” We still hadn’t gotten the shot. I felt like a total failure. 

My mom gave me water, and Bruce patted my shoulder.

“I’m so bad at this,” I moaned. “You make it look easy!”

“I’ve been acting for a long time,” Bruce said. “This is all new for you.”

“Just remember to breathe,” my mom said.

I held back tears. “Can I have a minute alone?”

I wandered over to the table with the backup Squeakers all lined up . . . backup Squeakers like me, the backup kid. They looked so cute and friendly, not nervous and terrified.

“Why can’t I get it right?” I asked, picking one up. Then I made Squeakers answer in my best squeaky mouse voice. “You can do it, Sophia. All you have to say is ‘Who’s gonna mop that up?’ ”

“Did Squeakers just talk?!” 

I was surprised to find Gina standing next to me.

“That was me,” I confessed. “I like talking in funny voices. I do it all the time. Gina, I’m so sorry I keep messing up. Squeakers could probably do a better job than me.”

The director’s eyes lit up. “Sophia, say your line again. Only this time, in that funny Squeakers voice.”

I held Squeakers in front of my face and said, “Who’s gonna mop that up?” 

Gina looked like she’d won the lottery. “Sophia, you’re brilliant!”

“What?” I said.

“We don’t need a kid for that line. We’ll use the mouse. You can do the voice offstage.”

“So I won’t be in the commercial after all?” All my hopes of stardom were fading away. 

“Of course you’ll be in the commercial. Just not on camera.”

I was speechless for a moment. How could I be famous if I only did a squeaky mouse voice?  

“But then nobody will see me,” I said softly.

The makeup guy overheard me. “Nobody sees me either,” he said. “But there wouldn’t be a commercial without me.”

“Or me,” said the microphone guy. 

“Or me!” Gina added. “What do you say, Sophia?”

It wasn’t what I’d dreamed of. But it was something else. And maybe it was something better: We were a whole team creating something together. 

In the end, the commercial was edited so it looked like Squeakers was saying, “Who’s gonna mop that up?” Then Bruce acted surprised to hear his mouse talk and replied, “My Squeaky Clean Mop, that’s who!”

And that’s how I, Sophia Sun, became the voice of Squeakers the Mouse in the Squeaky Clean Mop ads. 

The commercial ended up going viral. Soon all the kids at school knew Squeakers’s line and would yell it whenever they saw a puddle. Even though nobody recognized my voice or asked for a selfie with me, that was the best feeling ever.

Other than my close friends, not many people knew about my voice-over career. However, the other day in the cafeteria, when someone spilled their milk, I just couldn’t help myself. In Squeakers’s voice I said, “Who’s gonna mop that up?”

A boy pointed at me and shouted, “You sound exactly like that mouse on TV. You could be famous!”

I smiled broadly. “Thanks,” I said, blushing. “Maybe I will be someday.”