Awards Insider!
The Stranger Things standout is just starting to show Hollywood what she can do—and sees a bright future ahead: “I feel very, very lucky.”
By David Canfield
Sadie Sink may have only recently turned 20 years old, but in the past year she’s amassed the kind of range of credits more common for an actor twice her age. This includes Sink’s regular Stranger Things gig, which asked far more of her in the fourth season than what’d ever come before, as well as some fresh challenges: a two-hander with Brendan Fraser in the upcoming movie from Oscar nominee Darren Aronofsky, The Whale, and a lead role in Taylor Swift’s blockbuster All Too Well short film opposite Dylan O’Brien.
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But back to Stranger Things for a moment. Sink may have arrived later to the Netflix hit, but after her showstopping work this past season, no cast member is generating louder Emmy buzz. This is chiefly credited to her work in the fourth episode, “Dear Billy,” which finds Sink’s Max becoming the likely next victim of our latest Upside Down villain, Vecna. She narrowly survives, ultimately, after a riveting and horrific sequence in which Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”—Max’s favorite song—plays a now famously key role. Sink’s performance starts heartbreaking as she decides to write letters to all those she thinks she’s leaving behind, and turns thrilling as Max fights for survival.
In an in-depth conversation, Sink spoke with Vanity Fair about the challenges of filming that wild Vecna sequence, pushing herself as an actor, and entering a new phase of her career.
Vanity Fair: You’ll be going into the final season soon, and this is obviously the longest you’ve been with a character. Are you getting ready to say goodbye?
Sadie Sink: It’s definitely going to be weird not having this character to come back to. I think I speak for everyone when I say the show has become a home base in a way, and we go off in between seasons and we do our own things, but there’s comfort in knowing that we’re going to return back to film another season, and back to these characters that we know so well. Saying goodbye to that is going to throw everyone for a loop.
What was it like going into this season, where I know you had a longer break—and had your biggest material yet on the show to look forward to?
We got the scripts for the first four episodes, and then we were about to go into production, around February of 2020. We got a few weeks into filming and then we had to shut down for COVID. It was weird revving up and feeling ready to go, and then all of a sudden everything stopped for like seven months that we were on our break. But losing that momentum and then having to amp it back up again was beneficial in a way, because everyone was just so excited to get back to work, and we’d had even more time to sit with the scripts and prepare for what was coming. For me, I guess, it did serve me in that way.
So you read the “Dear Billy” script back then, in 2020?
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Yeah. And we were actually, in the beginning of 2020, we were starting with [filming] those two episodes, with episodes three and four first. And we got a few scenes done, but then we had to stop, and then didn’t visit episodes three and four until a year later, a year and a half later. So, it was bizarre, starting and then stopping it, and then revisiting it so much later.
You mentioned it was beneficial. I can imagine you were ready to get into it, because that episode gives so much to play. Knowing that was coming down the pike and waiting on it for so long…
There was so much that I wasn’t ready for. I needed a little bit more time to sit with it. And they were planning on just throwing us into three and four, but I think we really needed the first two episodes to amp it up and get to that emotional climax in the fourth episode. To have the time to sit with the character and actually get it on its feet before reaching that episode, that was a best-case scenario.
So in what order did things actually film? Everyone is so separate this season, it must have been a bit jumbled, right?
This year was probably the most out of order it’s ever been, because Matt and Ross, during our quarantine, wrote all of the episodes to the season, and then even got an outline together for season five. We had the scripts for everything, the locations for everything, so a lot of the time filming, we were bouncing back and forth between the episodes. We would shoot episode one in the morning, and then that night be shooting a scene from episode nine or something like that. It was kind of all over the place, just keeping up with where we were, plot-wise. It was challenging at certain points.
I remember the biggest challenge was remembering whether or not I had my headphones on, and the continuity in terms of the headphones. Like, are they on her shoulders? Is she wearing them? Where are we in the scene? Does she even have headphones? A lot to keep track of!
This season and that episode particularly certainly requires a new level of acting from you. Can you describe what was particularly intimidating, or that you were grateful to get more time to prepare for?
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I really wanted to do some more of the scenes with Max before she knows about Vecna’s curse, just to try that kind of headspace on and work out what that looks like and what that felt like—to sit with how she’s been feeling for the past few months, before getting into the more intense stuff. One of the first scenes we filmed [in 2020] was when she already knew about the curse, or she’s just finding out about the curse or something, and I felt like we were rushed into it. So, being able to take that break and then come back and shoot everything more in order was really, really helpful, just knowing where she came from and how she’s been, and as a result—how she feels about the curse and everything that’s happening in that moment.
It’s very much about who Max is, right? The writing of the letters, her connection to the song—it all shows us pieces of her and her personality. I imagine you had a rough idea of who Max was when you came into the show, as the show was introducing her, but how did that align with your own conception of her beyond what was on the page—and how did that dovetail into what happened this season?
This season, the writing for Max and the story line for Max, and all the emotions that she’s going through, felt really true to her, just in my mind. One thing that stands out to me, from reading in the scripts and being like, “Oh, yeah, that is right on the money, that’s exactly her,” is when she decides to write the letters. She thinks she’s going to die, and then she has these fail-safe letters that she hands out to her friends. It’s just a testament to how extreme her walls are, the walls that she has up. To the point where even in what is, she thinks, the last two days of her life, she still will not have that conversation with the person face-to-face, expressing what they mean to her. She’s still avoiding any sentimentality or vulnerability.
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What was your familiarity with Kate Bush before filming this season?
I did not know Kate Bush beforehand, but then I immediately skimmed through her work and then became increasingly more obsessed, and then I was listening to her all the time. I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve listened to “Running Up That Hill.” It’s been a lot, but I’m still not sick of it, which is good. [Laughs.] Knowing the emotional connection that she has to that song, and how it’s kind of her anthem, played into it. It’s something about the energy of the song, the synth and the lyrics and everything. It’s so perfect. They could not have picked a more perfect song.
So how were you listening to it as you filmed the sequence, and as you prepared for it?
I think on the day that we were filming the running sequence in episode four, we had the song playing. And I always would have it playing in my headphones. There was an actual cassette in the Walkman and I could listen to it if I wanted to, but I did do a whole day in my own time where I just was home and had it playing on in the background for the entire day, just to see if I would go insane, because that’s what Max was having to do. So I’m like, Oh, my God. Would you get sick of it? How is she doing this all day?
And you did not get sick of it!
Honestly! It just brings up so many emotions, and it’s such an epic sequence, and I feel like it’ll always be tied to that moment.
You lean toward real horror this season, and perform within the conventions of that. What was it like as an actor being on that set? I mean, they’ve got the eyes rolling back, and there’s a lot to do there, but there’s also a lot going on around you.
Yeah. It’s tricky, especially for the episode four sequence, because it’s all shot over a few weeks and really spread out and randomly filmed. Yeah, it was all over the place, so it was hard to keep track of where we were at. We filmed all the stuff with Vecna in the Mind Flayer before we even filmed all the graveyard stuff. It was really all over the place.
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Oh, wow.
As far as the CGI goes, the visual effects, it’s always very present on this show, but this Vecna was primarily practical effects. Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna/One/Henry/whatever [laughs], had to go through nine hours of prosthetics each morning, and he was in that whole getup. Having him there was really helpful, because if I would’ve just been looking at a tennis ball on a stick, it would’ve been challenging. He’s very in it and scarily convincing, and just the best, most patient, most horrifying scene partner I could ask for.
Between this and All Too Well, you’ve had a lot more visibility in the past year, and also a chance to show new sides of yourself.
Not only was I just so excited to work with Taylor, but I was also really excited to have a role there that was a glimpse of a different type of character that I could play, that I haven’t really tapped into yet, something a little bit more rounded and mature. It was nice to step outside of Max’s shoes for a bit, especially after playing her for two years for season four—to do something that felt like a complete opposite of that.
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You reunited with Taylor and Dylan O’Brien at Tribeca last week for the screening of it. What was it like sharing it with an audience?
We didn’t have that opportunity to have a panel, and to talk about the process, other than any respective interviews that Dylan, Taylor, and I have done individually, so having the panel where we get to sit down and kind of reminisce on the filming process was really nice. I’ve seen both of them here and there, but we hadn’t been together to talk about the film or do anything like that, so it was nice to dive into that experience together.
Did you get any new insights, I suppose, out of the making of it finally getting to hear them talk about it?
Definitely. It’s always so interesting hearing Taylor talk about the process, because she’s such a driven and creative individual, so I always love hearing her talk about the little things we wouldn’t consider; she has so many nuances that she plants in what she’s trying to create, and everything is so deep and metaphorical, even the little things that you wouldn’t believe, because she’s such a visual and descriptive songwriter, and then now also director.
Continuing the post-Max journey, I also wanted to ask you a little bit about The Whale, which is out later this year with A24, and working with Brendan Fraser. Did it again feel a little bit like pushing into new territory, as you were talking about earlier?
Yeah, for sure. I don’t think I’d ever done a project that had that much character work. Darren Aronofsky is obviously brilliant, and working with him was a really formative experience, and Brendan is so incredible in it, and also just probably my favorite human on the planet. It was so amazing having that experience with him. I learned a lot about myself as an actress, and tapped into a side of things that I hadn’t really explored before.
It does feel like, between the Duffers, Taylor Swift, and Darren Aronofsky, you’re a bit spoiled with directors right now.
[Laughs.] I’ve had some pretty incredible directors and mentors, so I feel very, very lucky.
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Hollywood Correspondent
David Canfield is a Hollywood correspondent at Vanity Fair, where he reports on awards season and co-hosts the Little Gold Men podcast. He joined VF from Entertainment Weekly, where he was the movies editor and oversaw awards coverage, and has also written for Vulture, Slate, and IndieWire. David is a... Read more
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