Sadie attended the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival – The Whale Premiere yesterday. Click on the gallery link below to see all new photos.

Click on the gallery links below to see all new photos!

Sadie Sink Will Go Wherever Stranger Things Takes Her

The actor talks Max’s future on the final season, and why her character and Elaine Benes have more in common than you might think.

For W’s third annual TV Portfolio, we asked 21 sought-after names in television to pay homage to their favorite small screen characters by stepping into their shoes.

After so many Stranger Things episodes centered on Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Max (Sadie Sink) finally got to take center stage in season 4. Reeling from the loss of her brother, the flame-haired skater retreats from her friends and cuts things off with her boyfriend, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). Her only companion is a Walkman—which has the cassette tape containing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” She listens to the song so much that even though she’s kept her friends at bay, they know it’s the one song that could save her life—and, they hope, theirs. (Viewers have also been listening to it on repeat, to the point where, 37 years after its release, it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart several times following the Netflix series’ season 4 premiere.)

Stranger Things—which, as the costumes make clear, takes place in the ’80s—isn’t the only way Sink gets her nostalgia fix. The 20-year-old actor has also been revisiting Seinfeld. Here, she makes the case for her similarity to Max and reflects on her character’s past, present, and future.

What was your reaction to the news that the Duffer Brothers [who cocreated Stranger Things] originally planned for the season to end with Max dying?

I didn’t know until someone told me about the interviews. They never really tell us what’s going to happen until we get the scripts, and when I got the script for episode 9, it said that Max dies but that she sort of comes back. It’s uncertain, but she’s not fully dead. I didn’t know the plan was to completely kill me off, which definitely would’ve been a very impactful ending. They’ve been saying in interviews that Max’s state at the end of season 4 is intentional, crucial, and calculated in terms of how it’s going to come to play in season 5—I guess. I know nothing.

What did you think was going to happen to Max before you read the script?

Season 4 was a wild journey for her. I definitely knew nothing good would happen, but I was not expecting this—this was a crazy, crazy end. I thought either she was going to succeed in a really epic way, or it would be her downfall, and I guess we landed somewhere in the middle.

You had to pause filming the season for more than half a year during lockdown. How much did Max stick with you during that break?

I definitely needed that time because of the state Max is in in season 4. That sense of isolation she feels is something we could all relate to coming out of quarantine, so having a lot of time by myself was good. By the time we returned to season 4, we were all really hungry to get back to work, so there was this determination and excitement on set. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be to get back into the groove of filming after such a long break.

Do you keep in touch with your costars when you aren’t filming?

Yeah, we keep in touch all the time—I was just on FaceTime with Gaten [Matarazzo, who plays Dustin] and Caleb last night. Over quarantine, there would be an occasional text like, “Is everyone okay? I hope we get back to work soon!” After that period of uncertainty, there was an intense appreciation for one another when we reunited on set.

Have you watched this season?

I have. They’d put two episodes at a time in our Netflix accounts a few weeks in advance. [I have] a shared account with my family, so we’d all watch together wherever we were. I especially loved watching the show this year because it was so scattered; I had no idea what they were doing in Russia and in California. It was nice to see all the pieces come together. And some of that stuff was so long ago, you forget what happens.

You constantly listened to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” the song that ends up saving Max’s life, when filming this season. Have you listened to it since, or are you sick of it?

I have. I haven’t listened to the radio in a long time, but it was playing when I was in the car the other day. It was some kind of top-hits [station], very modern music, and then “Running Up That Hill” played, sandwiched between TikTok sounds. It was a surreal moment to hear it on the actual radio, so many years since its release.

Max almost always has big headphones on. How much did you feel like you were in your own world on set?

The thing with the headphones is that not every Walkman worked. They had probably a dozen for me, but there wouldn’t always be music playing. And they’re pretty poor quality, so the music was very faint and muddled. I think I broke three or four Walkmans throughout the filming process. I started breaking them so much that they made me a Styrofoam one. It was fake, and it was essential.

Your choice of character for this portfolio was Elaine from Seinfeld. When did you first see the show?

There were a few sitcoms that were always on rotation in our house growing up, so I grew up with Seinfeld. My parents would watch it, and I would kind of sneak into the living room and watch a little bit if they let me. I just recently started revisiting it, so it was fresh on my mind. And with Elaine, the dynamic is so cool. It reminded me of Stranger Things in a way—being the only female character in a group full of male characters, similar to Eleven or Max. And just thinking of her in terms of fashion, because Elaine’s costumes are so underrated.

Do you have a favorite?

She wore this really grandma-y red dress [in season 3, episode 4], with socks and some kind of [oxfords]. She always does really flowy, feminine dresses, then toughens them up with a blazer of some sort. I’ve found that I’m modeling my summer style off of Elaine ever since doing this shoot. I love the blend of traditionally masculine silhouettes with feminine flair.

What about a favorite look that Max wears this season?

There are these dark jeans [she wears] with a green top and this cool corduroy jacket. She first puts it on in episode 6 and then wears it until episode 9. That was my favorite, and I’m glad I liked it because I definitely had to wear it a lot—probably a year in total. I would just show up and put this costume on every single day. There were multiples, like a bloody pair of jeans and a clean pair of jeans. They really had to track the whole story, like Where is she at right now? How dirty and bloody are her clothes?

What do you think is going to happen with Max and Lucas next season?

Poor Max—who knows? She’s definitely not able to make it to the movie date on Friday. A lot is up in the air. But after this whole experience, she’s probably learned a lot about the value of keeping people close in her life. We see a little glimpse of that in episode 9, when she agrees to the movie date. It feels like she’s ready to let people back into her life, heal, and move on from everything. Sadly, that was interrupted. But I would like to see her go further with that and be in a place where she’s fully herself again.

When do you start on season 5?

With it being the final season, I don’t think they’re going to rush it. They want to make it perfect and have the most epic ending to the most epic journey ever. Hopefully it’ll be a shorter turnaround than the season 3 to season 4 gap. I’m really excited to get back to work. I trust Matt and Ross [Duffer] so much, so wherever they want to take my character, I’ll be there.

Source: wmagazine.com

Sadie Sink is FASHION’s September Cover Star

Thanks to “Stranger Things,” Sink spent most of her teen years in the spotlight. But underneath all the glitz and glam, she’s just your average 20-year-old who prefers baggy jeans to ball gowns.

Don’t get Sadie Sink started on High School Musical. “You just say the word and I can sing all the lyrics of ‘I Want It All’ from the third movie,” she laughs, describing her love of the iconic Disney Channel franchise and the characters Ryan and Sharpay Evans, played by Lucas Grabeel and Ashley Tisdale. “They are NOT the villains!” she passionately declares, only half joking. (For the uninitiated, she’s referring to the first film, in which the Evans siblings try to prevent Vanessa Hudgens’s Gabriella Montez and Zac Efron’s Troy Bolton from auditioning for the school musical.) “Sharpay put in the work! Where is the respect for seniority? But I could talk about this for hours.”

In fact, we’re only five minutes into our video chat, but here we are, already gossiping, grinning and giggling like two girls at a slumber party. She’s even dressed for one, wearing a relaxed striped shirt with a messy bun and barely-there makeup as she sits cross-legged on a chair in an L.A. hotel room. And maybe it’s her young age of 20, or maybe it’s because I’ve caught Sink in a lull after a whirlwind of press for season four of Stranger Things, but our conversation feels more intimate than most. This, I soon discover, is rare for the usually guarded actor.

Growing up in Brenham, Tex., Sadie Sink and her four siblings — three brothers and one sister — weren’t allowed to watch many movies, but one that they were able to enjoy was High School Musical (hence the obsession). “It really had a huge impact on me and started me and my brother Mitchell on our musical journey,” she shares. Case in point: The Sink siblings would make up their own choreography to various songs from the film and (in her words) force their family to watch them perform it. With two such fervent musical fans in the house, their parents enrolled both Sink and her brother in local singing, acting and dancing classes, which led them to get roles at a regional theatre in Houston. “My mom drove us to all these things — not in the hope of our ever going to Broadway or anything like that but because they were activities we loved doing.”

As luck would have it, that’s exactly what happened next. Sink was playing the titular role in a local production of Annie when she learned that Broadway was looking for its own red-headed protagonist. After submitting an audition tape, Sink was initially cast as an understudy, but a few months later, she became the star. She was 11 years old at the time. By 12, she was starring in The Audience (written by The Crown’s Peter Morgan) alongside Helen Mirren. “That’s when my relationship with acting changed,” notes Sink. “Working with some of the greatest minds in the industry taught me about what acting really is, and that’s when I decided this was what I wanted to do.”

With that in mind, Sadie Sink began a natural transition from stage to screen. After moving to New Jersey with her family, she landed a few guest spots on TV series like The Americans and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. But it wasn’t until she auditioned for season two of Stranger Things that her world completely changed. Although the casting directors were initially hesitant about Sink’s “old” age (she was 14 at the time!), she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I just begged and pleaded with them to give me more material so I could show them something fresh,” she explains, describing how “right” the part of Max felt to her. The producers relented and called her in for a chemistry read with now co-stars Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin. The next day, she found out she’d got the part.

With the fifth and final season of Stranger Things on its way, Sink isn’t sure if she has become more or less like her character, but she admits that they both tend to put up walls. “Max’s walls look very different from mine,” she says. “I don’t think I’m as cold as she is, but I can sometimes be slightly emotionally unavailable.” It then dawns on me that I’ve been seeing a slightly less guarded Sadie Sink on my screen — one who is quick to share stories and laugh at her situation and herself. However, she’s still careful with her words — and who could blame her? After watching the media devour other famous young females — like Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and even her co-star Millie Bobby Brown — Sink is smart to be cautious.

Speaking of Swift, Sink’s opportunity to work with the singer-songwriter on All Too Well: The Short Film in 2021 couldn’t have come at a better time. “I’m so grateful that she was able to give me such good advice in terms of navigating the industry as a young woman and about life in general,” Sink says, smiling. What exactly did Swift share? Well, that’s a secret Sink keeps to herself, although it’s clear from her expression that her friendship with Swift is special and full of mutual admiration. (Swift reportedly personally chose Sink for the role.) “As a director, she’s just as amazing as you’d think she would be,” Sink explains enthusiastically. “She is a powerhouse and can do anything she puts her mind to.”

Looking back, Sink is still processing her teen years spent in the spotlight. “It’s such a weird and specific situation that the Strangers Things cast and I are all in because the world knows who our characters are but we’re still trying to figure out who we are as people,” she says thoughtfully. “I think being in the industry accelerates you and you mature faster. But for the most part, it’s just so fun because the cast is all going through it together.”

To get her “typical teen fix,” Sink reveals she’d often condense multiple experiences, such as a high-school party or a late-night diner run, into one weekend and treat them like checking off boxes on a to-do list. But the one that got away? Living her High School Musical fantasy. “I would’ve absolutely loved to have been in a school production with kids my age,” she says wistfully.

Although most people would happily trade homemade costumes for red-carpet couture, Sink admits she feels more comfortable in baggy jeans and a tank top than a bourgeois ball gown. “In a way, the clothing I wear in my personal life feels like a type of armour,” she shares, referring to the powerful suiting and edgy separates she’s been rocking recently. “I feel more like myself when I’m not dressed up.” That said, her love of blazers transcends both celebrity and real-life Sadie. “I will wear them until the day I die,” she laughs.

That’s the thing with Sadie Sink. As much as she is focused on continuing to build her career, with the 2021 horror franchise Fear Street, the final season of Stranger Things and Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming psychological drama The Whale (to be released later this year) and attempting to navigate a complicated relationship with the fame that follows, she’s still just a young woman trying to find herself as she graduates from her teens into her 20s. Whether she’s taking her cues from a grown-up Taylor Swift or the fictional and fabulous Sharpay, or a little bit of both, it’s clear that Sadie Sink will be calling the shots. And that’s exactly how it should be. “Honestly, my life has felt a bit like a coming-of-age movie,” she reveals. We’ll be here, waiting for the sequel.

Source: fashionmagazine.com