Weather 
Sophia Anne Caruso is opening up about her departure from the Broadway production of Beetlejuice.
The actress — who originated the role of Lydia Deetz when the musical premiered at The National Theatre in Washington, D.C., and transferred with the production to Broadway in 2019 — had fans questioning why she abruptly left the show in February 2020.
At the time, a production source told BroadwayWorld the actress, now 24, used her contractual out to pursue film and television work, but Reddit threads and social media platforms like TikTok were spreading rumors and claiming her behind-the-scenes behavior was problematic.
During the June 5 episode of The Internet Is Dead podcast, Caruso was asked if she was aware of the online “discourse” surrounding her sudden exit.
“Yes and no,” she said, explaining that she wasn’t on TikTok until well into the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down Broadway approximately one month after Caruso left Beetlejuice.
“When I left the show, of course I knew [of the rumors] because people were asking me, and I was like ‘What do you mean? I’m leaving to go work on another project,’” she explained.
“It was something I’d always set my sights on — wanting to do movies, and I had the opportunity, so I left,” she said.
Following Beetlejuice, Caruso starred in the fantasy film The School for Good and Evil, which was released in October 2022 on Netflix.
Still, Reddit threads and other social media platforms speculated Caruso was fired or left the Broadway production on bad terms.
“It was very confusing for me,” she admitted during the recent podcast appearance. “I felt very just confused. But I ultimately came to a place of like, ‘Whatever…I’m doing my thing.’”
Caruso, who explained that she tries to keep a relatively low profile online, said that “people love to make up” stories when you are a private person.
“Not allowing myself to be like an open portal for the fan world allows them to project things upon me of what they think,” she said. “In some ways, by being private, I’m allowing people to say whatever. But I don’t care. Not everybody gets the full version of me. Not everybody’s entitled to that. And the internet, most certainly, is not entitled to all that.”
“That is reserved for my friends and my family who know and understand me,” she said. “And I stand by it. But, yeah, it was kind of surprising.”
“If you think that everything you read online, especially when it is posted by somebody who has no association or knowledge of anything, is real, then you have to think a little harder,” she concluded.
Caruso returned to Broadway to play the role of Marlow in the Broadway production of Grey House in 2023.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride
