Sophie Wong
| Sophie Wong | |
|---|---|
| Winners & Losers character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | "Covert Aggression in Netball" 22 March 2011 |
| Last appearance | "The Last Five Years" 12 September 2016 |
| Created by | Bevan Lee |
| Portrayed by | Melanie Vallejo |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Medical school student Personal trainer |
| Family | Charles Wong (father) Louise Wong (mother) Donna Wong (sister) |
| Significant other(s) | Leo Chung Doug Graham Luke MacKenzie |
Sophie Wong is a fictional character in the Australian Channel Seven drama series Winners & Losers, played by Melanie Vallejo. Sophie is one of the show's four female protagonists and made her debut screen appearance in the pilot episode "Covert Aggression in Netball", which was broadcast on 22 March 2011. Vallejo did not undertake much preparation for her audition, opting to be natural to impress the casting staff. Upon receiving the role she moved home from Adelaide to Melbourne for filming. The series focuses on the lives of Sophie, Frances James (Virginia Gay), Jenny Gross (Melissa Bergland) and Bec Gilbert (Zoe Tuckwell-Smith) who attend a school reunion and later win money on the Oz Lotto.
Sophie is characterised as a "self-aware, sexy, confident and hot female" who used to be bullied for being over-weight during high school. Vallejo said that Sophie is likeable because "she is fun, she wears great clothes [and] kisses lots of boys". One early storyline for the character is a cocaine habit, which was deemed "risky" for the network to air. Sophie's problems are attributed to her backstory; once engaged to Leo Chung, she was devastated when he died in a car accident. She was a medical student but left the profession and began working as a personal trainer. Throughout the series Sophie shares a close friendship with Doug Graham (Tom Wren), but he is in love with her. Some of Sophie's "steamy" sexual scenes involve Doug, both Vallejo and Wren thought the plot was "hilarious". At the end of season one the two characters began a relationship, which began Sophie's story arc for the second season of Winners & Losers. Bec discovers that she is pregnant with Doug's child – but the characters decide to try to make their situation work. Sophie also returns to train in medicine.
The reception Sophie has garnered from critics has been mixed. The character's sexual prowess has often been reported on; Clem Bastow from The Vine said that Sophie is "the sex kitten of the show", while Ruth Beloff from The Jerusalem Post branded her "sexy" and "promiscuous". One reviewer felt that Vallejo became a "household face" because of Sophie – and Darren Devlyn and Colin Vickery from the Herald Sun said the critics were "raving" about Vallejo's performance. But The Age's Debi Enker labelled Sophie a "standard" stereotype of the "glamorous, troubled brunette" and Melinda Houston writing for The Sydney Morning Herald left unimpressed with Vallejo's acting, likening her to a "slightly wooden pretty face".
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