Sadie Sink’s achievements and power far outstrips her 19 years of age. Playing Maxine Mayfield in Stranger Things bought Sadie instant international fame, 13.3 million Insta followers and she has also already starred alongside the likes of Woody Harrelson in the movie, The Glass Castle and opposite Helen Mirren on stage in The Audience. Oh, and is a part time skateboarder too. This girl has got skills!
Now she adds Netflix’s new trilogy of horror movies, Fear Street to her bursting CV. Horror movies can, well, be horrific viewing at times. It’s rare to watch one which is not only makes you sh*t yourself with nerves but also gets you thinking about the world we actually live in. That was until Netflix dropped this trilogy.
Based on the books by Goosebumps (now that’s a flashback) author, RL Stine Fear Street follows a group of high schoolers over a trilogy of movies the first in 1994, then 1978 and 1666 attempting to not only solve a murder mystery but a 351 year long curse on the middle American town of Shadyside.
Whilst there is gore galore, at the film’s heart is the queer love story between Deena and Sam, played by Kiana Maderia and Olivia Welch respectively, a love story rarely seen in a horror movie or rather ANY mainstream movie. And in the second movie, Fear Street 1978 the relationship between Sadie’s Zadie and her sister, Cindy is the centre of the drama as the curse comes to the summer camp in Shadyside and her campmates become possessed. Just another summer day then?
As the native Texan prepares to get her scream on, she opens up to GLAMOUR about coming of age, dealing with the horrors on screen, the horrors of adulting off screen (hard relate) and finding her voice…
The Fear Street trilogy is epic! What was your own onset horror story?
I had the most fun filming these movies but there were a lot of scenes where things got really intense and it was late at night. The biggest moment was one of those final scenes where, ‘bad things are happening.’ I was all bloody, I was laying in the grass, it was like 3:00 AM, and I just thought, ‘these are not good circumstances! I feel very physically uncomfortable, but I am having the best time ever! I feel gross and disgusting, but I could not be having more fun.’
Friendship is such a strong theme in Fear Street and how it can quite literally save us. How has friendship saved you?
Friendship is so important! Having friends that are real friends that know you and have your best interest at heart is really important – it’s hard to find those people, but I have some really incredible people in my life that I trust and rely on. Especially in this industry, when things start to pick up and get really crazy and overwhelming, it’s just so nice to have someone to FaceTime at the end of the day, just talk to and vent with. I’m lucky to have some amazing people in my life that I can do that with.
Fear Street must have been so intense to film. How do you look after your mental wellbeing and what have been some turning points in that journey for you away from filming?
When things get really intense and overwhelming on set, massages are great, calling my mom is great or just like watching Schitt’s Creekat the end of the day – that’s great! It’s really important to take a breath and calm down, especially when you’re putting yourself in the elements with shows like Stranger Things and with movies like Fear Street, it gets really intense.
Stranger Things and Fear Street both share a similar storyline of discovering your ‘self.’ What have been some turning points in that journey for you?
I think when I turned 18, and then was working as an adult in this industry that’s when things really changed for me. Now I’m 19 and I’m living in Atlanta without parents and working on my own – it’s been a huge adjustment, just working as a child actor and the strict hours, you have to have a guardian, and your parents are always with you. Going from that to learning how to work as an adult, dealing with being on your own and taking care of yourself, that’s been a huge turning point. But also it’s proven to me that I can do this, I’m ready and it makes me hopeful for my future.
What have you learned about your own power and how has your perception of your own power changed?
I think definitely growing up in this industry when you’re starting out as a kid, at least for me, I’ve always been very timid, even with things like interviews when I was first being introduced into that world and I was very timid and very nervous. Then as I’ve become more comfortable with it, you start to find your voice and get in the groove of things. That is really empowering for me, just to see how far I’ve come and how much more of a voice I feel like I have now compared to when I first started out. You can see it, looking back at videos of myself acting or in interviews when I was younger, compared to where I am now, it’s amazing to see that self-growth is just all captured on camera, on the internet, everywhere.
What was maybe the biggest adulting challenge for you in that journey?
It’s just the little things! I can do dishes, I can do laundry, I’m good with all of that, but (with) driving, it was really nice to have my mom when she would drive me places! I knew how to drive at one point, but then I just threw that out the window, I don’t do that anymore. We’re learning as we go!
I love that Fear Street heroes characters who would have usually have been killed off in the first minute or first scene. It flips labels and stereotypes, too. What stereotypes have been placed on you in your own life that you have had to shake off?
I try not to think about what people are labeling me as, but the only really face-to-face experience I’ve ever had with that is when Stranger Things started to blow up and being at school still, dealing with kids, how they treated you a little bit differently. And not treating you as the person that you’ve always been, but treating you as this, ‘new actress who’s on this really cool show.’ That was an adjustment!
It’s interesting that the trilogy covers three very different periods and shows how sexismhas always been so prominent. What surprises you about how much further we still have to go?
Watching these movies in the way they deal with the strong female characters and how they were treated, and then also the Sam and Dina relationship and how that was viewed, shows definitely that we’ve come a very long way. I think there’s still a lot of work to be done, but luckily, I feel like my generation, they’re very opinionated and they’re ready to build the world that they want to live in in the future. That gives me hope, and hopefully a lot of adults and kids hope as well.I think we all have a lot to learn from each other, it’s just a matter of really listening.
If you could go back to the start of filming Fear Street and give yourself one bit of advice what would it be?
I would probably tell her, ‘Be sure to stretch, really take care of yourself, start running, keep that stamina up!’ But then also, I would say, ‘Things are going to get really intense, but also you’re going to make the best memories of your life on this and you’re going to have a really incredible summer, so it’s worth every tear, every drop of sweat!”
Fear Street 1978 is released on Friday.
