After three seasons of exceptional performances, it's hard to imagine Stranger Things without Sadie Sink as Max. So why did showrunners come so close to rejecting her?
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00:00After three seasons of exceptional performances, it's hard to imagine Stranger Things without
00:05Sadie Sink as Max. So why did showrunners come so close to rejecting her?
00:10The actor emerged on the scene in the second season of Stranger Things, playing Hawkins
00:14Middle School newcomer Max Mayfield, a skateboarding tomboy who just moved to town with her bullying
00:19older brother, Billy. Before appearing on Stranger Things, Sink had roles in titles
00:24like the NBC thriller American Odyssey and the Amy Adams-led film The Glass Castle. However,
00:30it was the role of Max that put Sink on the map.
00:33The creators and fans of Stranger Things are lucky to have Sink, but apparently they almost
00:38didn't. In a recent interview with Fashion Magazine, the actor revealed that the Stranger
00:43Things casting directors initially felt she was too old for the role of Max, despite the
00:48fact that she was only 14 when she auditioned.
00:51That's presumptuous of you."
00:53Luckily for us, Sink wasn't ready to give up the part so easily. She told the magazine,
00:58"...I just begged and pleaded with them to give me more material so I could show them
01:02something fresh."
01:03She then did a chemistry read with her future co-stars, Gaten Matarazzo, who plays geeky
01:08Dustin, and Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Max's love interest, Lucas. Apparently, she nailed
01:14that read, as she was told she had the part the very next day. Now 20 years old, Sink
01:19is only slightly older than some of her peers on the show, and her performance as Max is
01:23a highlight of the series.
01:24Apparently, Sink's age wasn't the only thing standing between her and the role of a lifetime.
01:29In 2017, she admitted to Coveteur that she lied about being able to skate. When her agent
01:34called with news about the audition, Sink had just finished the first season of the
01:38series and was eager to try out for the role of the new girl in Hawkins. She told the publication,
01:43"...They wanted a girl that had skateboard experience, and I didn't have skateboarding
01:47experience at all. They asked me, oh, do you have any rollerblading experience? I was
01:52like, uh, sure I do, which was technically not a lie because I have rollerbladed before."
01:58Sink figured she'd figure out how to skate in time, but when she went in for her audition,
02:02she almost psyched herself out after noticing a pair of rollerblades in the corner of the
02:05room. She spent the entire audition worrying about this, as she hadn't rollerbladed in
02:10a long time. Luckily for her and the show, her skating ability went untested, and she
02:15knocked the audition out of the park.
02:17Six years later, Max Mayfield is a fan-favorite character and an integral part of Stranger
02:22Things. In the penultimate season, the teenager ended up hunted by the horror movie-inspired
02:27villain Vecna, narrowly escaping his clutches but ending up in pretty grave condition by
02:32the end of the heartbreaking finale. Max's season four plot is among the series' best
02:37to date. She struggled with depression, grief, and guilt, all of which made her the perfect
02:42target for Vecna. Yet, she fought the powerful villain off twice, taking back control with
02:47the power of positive memories and Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill, Deal With God.
02:52With one season left of the juggernaut series, Max has become one of the show's bravest and
02:56most resilient characters, and Sink's emotionally raw performance is undoubtedly a huge part
03:02of the character's success. Sink has also made great professional strides since she
03:06first landed the role of Max. She headlined the R.L. Stine adaptation trilogy Fear Street
03:11on Netflix last summer, playing another scrappy teen hero dealing with a slasher scenario.
03:17She also showed her acting chops in the short film released in tandem with the extended
03:20version of Taylor Swift's All Too Well. There, she played a precocious, yet in-over-her-head
03:25young woman dating a man several years her senior. Even more recently, Sink starred opposite
03:31Brendan Fraser in The Whale.
03:33The Darren Aronofsky film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022.