How Sadie Sink almost lost her role in ‘Stranger Things’: “I begged and pleaded”
With the imminent release of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, the internet is ablaze with gossip, excitement, and reflections on where the little kids from the start of the show have gone.
Nearly ten years since the first season was released, the Hawkins actors have grown up and gone their separate ways. While people still buzz about them in the run-up to the releases of the latest seasons, only a few of them have managed to seriously break out into other things.
Millie Bobby Brown is still a huge name, but she’s now being dubbed a ‘Stream Queen’ for her inability to do anything that isn’t connected with Netflix or other streaming platforms. Finn Wolfhard had his time in the spotlight after the first season, but things have seemingly dried up more recently, and honestly, the others don’t seem to come up all that much outside of the show.
Sadie Sink, however, seems to be the only one from the youngest cast members who has gone on to something of real substance. She might not be in the social media gossip rounds as often, but most recently, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her return to stage in John Proctor is the Villain, becoming the second youngest woman to do so.
In 2022, she starred in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, probably the most interesting and critically acclaimed film any of the young cast members has done, and with all this in mind, she seems like one of the most likely to make it out of the streaming/type-casting child star trap of the show; however, she was very nearly not even hired in the first place.
Sink joined the Stranger Things cast in the second season as the skateboarding, tomboy replacement for Eleven in ‘The Party’. I am admittedly not a fan of the show past the first season and a firm believer that it could have been one of the best one-and-dones in TV history, but Max was actually a welcome addition to the show, especially given Sink’s ability as an actor.
Regardless, although the casting directors liked her, she nearly missed out on the role due to her age, being a 14-year-old at the time of auditioning for the role of 12-year-old Max, and given how quickly kids can change in those years, it was a fair worry; but Sink, apparently, wasn’t going to let it slip away that easily.
“I just begged and pleaded with them to give me more material so I could show them something fresh,” she told Fashion magazine. Thankfully, the directors gave in, and she received no less than four call-backs, but the one that got her hired was a chemistry test between her, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin, which fans of the show will understand must have been like watching the character come to life with this audition, as that chemistry between the three is very clear onscreen.
Sink brings a maturity and confidence to the role that seems to pull everyone along with her, and so, the day after the chemistry test, the young actor finally landed the role, and thank god she did for her character tends to bring emotional reality and groundedness to a show that has gotten wildly out of hand and over the top, trampling many of its best parts in the process. It’s no wonder she’s coming out of the show even better off than when she started, and here’s hoping this generational run continues in her favour.
