A HIGH school student became a celebrity reporter when she got the chance to interview Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie.

Sofia Roper, an S2 student at North Berwick High School, was offered the opportunity to talk with the actress, and her 10-year-old co-star Brooklynn Prince, by BBC Newsround.

Sofia, 12, said: “It was fun but it was also scary. It was overwhelming.”

The budding journalist was hired by the BBC after the news channel approached the school’s humanities department, asking to interview students about their highs and lows of lockdown.

The Newsround crew were so impressed by the video submitted by Sofia that they offered her the chance to become a reporter and interview, via an online video call, the stars of new film The One And Only Ivan.

Sofia, of High Street, East Linton, told the Courier that she did some research before talking to the film star.

She said: “I chose to do some research because it’s good to have a personal aspect to your questions.

“I practised interviewing with Ali Plumb [BBC Radio 1 film reporter] and it was much easier, I didn’t feel nervous at all talking to him, but then when I talked to Angelina I was very nervous. And I don’t understand why!”

Sofia joined 30 professional journalists on video conferencing platform Zoom, all waiting for their slot to interview the Hollywood stars.

East Lothian Courier:

Student Sofia Roper waits on Zoom to interview Angelina Jolie

She said: “It was hard to hide that I was so nervous and imagine that I was talking to a completely normal person.

“Angelina and Brooklynn were friendly but they made me feel very scared, just because they had this kind of presence; you could tell they were more confident.”

But Sofia said the experience had also made her more confident and was one she would be happy to have again.

She said: “One of my old teachers was saying that I was a lot more confident now than I was when she taught me.”

Sofia’s proud mum, Soledad Garcia Ferrari, said: “It was all very unexpected. She’s been brilliant. She had to do lots of videos in preparation, she had to watch the film and comment on it.

“It was so funny seeing all the little windows on Zoom, of all the reporters from all over the world.

“And the interview was two hours later than planned, so she was sitting by her computer for two hours waiting.

“But Angelina was very friendly.”

Georgina Brownlee, one of Sofia’s teachers in the humanities department, said: “The BBC got in touch during lockdown to ask for some clips of pupil ‘lockdown highs and lows’ and a number of our junior pupils participated by entering a personal 60-second video clip, broadcast on Newsround during lockdown.

“From there, the BBC editor got in touch to ask Sofia to do a further interview, this time on the new Disney film The One and Only Ivan, starring Angelina Jolie.

“The humanities faculty are delighted with Sofia’s impressive performance during her inaugural role as a BBC reporter; she did a superb job interviewing a Hollywood megastar.

“Sofia is a dedicated student and we will continue to facilitate the links and opportunities that have emerged from the BBC for all of our pupils.”

As for Sofia’s next journalist experience? The junior reporter said she’d like to chat with a YouTuber.

She said: “I like YouTubers because they don’t have a script.

“You don’t have to interview them to know what kind of person they are. They’re funny and entertaining.

“I like Georgia Productions – she’s my favourite.”

The interview is at bbc.co.uk/newsround/53849285