Vanity Fair: Now that Stranger Things is ending, you get to stop being nervous that you’ll accidentally spoil something. Does keeping plot secrets weigh on you at all?
Sadie Sink: I’m really good at it, mostly because when I started out in interviews, I was just kind of scared to say anything. So I’m pretty good at keeping my cards close to my chest.
We left your character, Max, in rough shape at the end of season four. There’s a glimpse in the final trailer of Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) getting into an elevator carrying Max’s limp body in a hospital gown. Can you talk a little about filming that?
We shot most of the hospital stuff in one day, just because it’s one room, one setup. We just kind of knocked out all the coma scenes, which was light work for me, very nice.
Does Max make it out of the coma?
It’s kind of cool to have a role that keeps people guessing and just kind of sitting back and watching it all unfold.
Your social media presence seems very buttoned-up. Has your relationship to Instagram changed over the years?
It’s definitely changed. It’s hard when you’re little, and it becomes this big thing in your life, and you all of a sudden have a bunch of eyes on you. It’s weird enough being 14 years old, and that just makes it a little bit weirder. Coming into yourself and figuring out who you are, and doing that all while people are paying—or at least some people—attention to it.
I definitely was always super cautious with social media, and never really felt comfortable sharing that much personal stuff, or even being on it too much. And I think that was a good, healthy relationship to have with it. Now it feels kind of like it can be whatever I want it to be, if I want it to be a part of my life. If I don’t, it doesn’t have to. I have a little sister who’s 15, and I was 14 when the show happened. It really puts everything into perspective, just seeing how young she is. Not that she wouldn’t be more than capable of it, but it’s kind of wild for me to wrap my brain around it, just because, at the time, it felt so serious and adult. Looking back, it’s like, Oh, we were all just kids, right?
