Sadie Sink: End of Stranger Things ‘like saying goodbye to childhood’

By Jenny Garnsworthy, PA

Actress Sadie Sink has said filming her last scenes for the final series of Stranger Things felt “like saying goodbye to your childhood”.

Sink, who has played the role of Max Mayfield since the hit Netflix show’s second series, said reaching the end of shooting the fifth and final series was “horrible”.

She told Glamour magazine: “It was awful, just so emotional. It felt like we were genuinely grieving something, which we were, because it’s a huge chapter of our lives.

“It’s bigger than even high school or college, or the friends that you make there. It’s bigger than that because nothing else is like this.”

 

Sink, who had grown close to her other young co-stars since she joined the cast in 2017 at the age of 14, added: “We’re so connected on so many levels, and then also have this really singular experience.

“I still have these people and everything, but we have to say goodbye to what brought us together. It was like saying goodbye to your childhood.”

Sink, who appears on the cover of the December issue of the magazine, said she found growing up on the show “hard” but always felt she should not complain in case she seemed ungrateful.

She went on: “Looking back on my teenage years, growing up on the show, I was really protected by the people around me.

“It definitely was hard in all the ways you would expect it to be hard, but the biggest thing, looking back, was that when things were hard, when there would be certain pressures, or I’d be overwhelmed, I felt like I couldn’t talk about it because it was such an amazing thing that was happening.

“Of course it was, and I wouldn’t change anything, but sometimes you don’t feel like you can have any complaints or struggles, which I think is common for lots of people even if you’re not in this line of work.”

Sink also discussed working as a producer for the first time, on the film adaptation of the play John Proctor Is The Villain, as it “felt like the right fit”.

She told Glamour: “I’ve always been curious about producing, but it was only something I wanted to do if I felt like I could take it on.

“I don’t want to just slap my name on something as a producer just because I can.

“I actually want to learn how to do it and do it right and work with people who are willing to educate me on it.”