Sofia Carson Talks 'Feel the Beat' and Her New Single

Movie theaters are still closed across the U.S., but Netflix is here for all your entertainment needs, and if you haven't yet watched Feel the Beat, now's the perfect time. The new movie, which debuted Friday, stars Sofia Carson as April, a young woman who goes home after a bad dance audition and reconnects with her past. "April is a small-town girl who ran away from home to pursue her big dreams, like so many of us do," Carson tells People CHICA. "But as the story goes along, we realize that she was not only running toward her dreams, she was running away from her pain and her reality of being abandoned by her mom. April was forced to come back home and find herself again."

The film was one of the top three most-watched movies on Netflix this past weekend, so it's clearly resonating with viewers. "The other story that this film tells is told by the young characters," says Carson of April's students in the movie. "These girls are exactly who they are and not trying to be anything else. They are imperfect and different in the most beautiful way. ... I hope that anyone who watches this film, young girls especially, when they see these characters they feel seen and loved."

Carson also released her new single "Miss U More Than U Know" featuring R3HAB last week. The song is the duo's third collaboration, and is about missing someone while still trying to let them go. The pair filmed a socially distanced video mid-quarantine, and expect to release it soon.

If her new music and movie haven't kept her busy enough, Carson also recently become a Revlon global ambassador, and has been working with UNICEF to support first responders who are battling the coronavirus pandemic. "We created a fundraiser together in a campaign called 'Spread Help with Sofia' to raise funds for our first responders, our doctors and nurses who are heroes risking their lives to save our lives," she explains. "It was really amazing to be able to focus my energy on that and it was overwhelming to see the response from people all over the world wanting to spread hope and giving whatever they could to help. And recently, with the most important movement that I've witnessed in my generation — the Black Lives Matter movement — I've helped to spread UNICEF's message and what they're doing on that front to protect Black children and Black lives."

One thing you probably won't see her in is another Descendants movie. The Disney franchise, which debuted in 2015, lost a key member last year when actor Cameron Boyce died of a seizure. Carson loved being a part of the films, but thinks it would be impossibly hard to continue the series without Boyce. "I feel so grateful that I even get asked that question because our movies and our world of Descendants is so loved," she says. "It's incredibly difficult for me to imagine it without Cameron, but you never know."