Sadie Sink—the now 23-year-old actress whose star took off when she joined the ensemble cast of Netflix’s Stranger Things during its second season—has not quite lived in a right-side-up world since 2017.

“There’s life during Stranger Things and there’s going to be life after Stranger Things. It was my childhood. Things are going to be very different,” she says with a bittersweet smile, speaking to me over Zoom from her parents’ home in New Jersey.

The show’s grand finale arrives on New Year’s Eve, wrapping up a run that’s seen Sink and her co-stars—including Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, and Millie Bobby Brown—go from unknown teenagers to globally famous young adults. “None of this has been a normal way to grow up, but what made it manageable was that we were all going through it together,” she continues. “Having people who understood it without needing to explain it—that’s invaluable.”

Stranger Things is Netflix’s biggest franchise: a record-breaking, nine-and-a-half-year phenomenon about a ragtag group of kids in the Midwestern suburbs, battling forces both unexplainable and somehow relatable in the 1980s. (Anyone who grew up before the internet may recall finding—and fighting—their own childhood monsters in the woods.) Created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, the juggernaut has generated billions of dollars in peripheral income from its merch and pop-up theme parks; hooked legions of fans across generations; and tapped into a vein of nostalgia that feels especially poignant—and gripping—in our hyper-digitized world.

As the introverted Max Mayfield, Sink’s cool, sensitive performance has made her a fan favorite: So powerful was her arc and presence in Season 4 that the 1985 Kate Bush song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)”—which functions as a kind of aural MacGuffin in Max’s story—reentered the 2022 pop charts.

“Any time young girls see themselves in Max… it’s something special,” Sink says. “I’ve met kids who have said something as small as, ‘I took up skateboarding because of her,’ to as big as, ‘I felt seen because of her.’ My mom is a teacher, and she told me that a student from another class, a nine-year-old kid, wrote that if she could meet any actress, it would be me. That kind of thing never stops feeling surreal. It’s a reminder of how many people the show reaches, especially young viewers. I’m proud to be part of something that celebrates misfit kids who are different, but who are still heroes.”

On Christmas Day, Netflix released Volume 2 of Stranger Things’ fifth and final season—the penultimate drop before the big curtain close on December 31, with a feature-film–length episode clocking in at more than two hours.

Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler in Stranger Things.

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix

For most of Volume 2, Max is trapped, with 12 younger children from ST’s fictional town of Hawkins, in a mind-prison designed by the show’s villain, Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower). One of these children is Holly Wheeler, played by Nell Fisher, whom Max shepherds through Vecna’s mental maze as she tries to reunite with her motley crew (who are also trying to outfox Vecna). “Stranger Things has always been big on unlikely pairings,” says Sink of her plotline, “and Max and Holly are no exception.”

By the end of Episode 6, Max is back with Eleven and the boys, including her love interest Lucas, played by McLaughlin—a touching moment. “Max runs through her portal from Vecna’s alter-world, and wakes up in Lucas’ arms,” Sink says. “That reunion was one of my favorite things to film. At that point, I hadn’t acted with any of my usual cast mates—at least not consciously—so it was really naturally emotional. It’s a huge moment for Max and Lucas’s relationship, and it shows how much they rely on each other.” Until that point, many of Max’s scenes outside of Vecna’s prison had been in a state of unconsciousness; back in Hawkins, she’s been stuck in a two-year trance.

Life after Stranger Things is already moving quickly: Following an acclaimed run in John Proctor Is the Villain on Broadway last season, next March she will star in a new adaptation of Romeo & Juliet in London.

Sink at the 2025 Tony Awards

Photo: Getty Images

“I didn’t expect to jump back into theater so soon,” she says, “but I got the bug again. Shakespeare has always fascinated me as a challenge, and Romeo & Juliet is one of the most famous stories in the world. It’s endlessly adaptable. It felt like a meaningful thing to take on, as I close the Stranger Things chapter.” She adds: “I’m in a learning phase right now. I don’t have a list of dream roles—I just want to be challenged, and to keep growing.” Sink has also been cast in an as-yet-undisclosed role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the next film in the live-action Marvel franchise starring Tom Holland and Zendaya. “I had a good time—that’s everything I’ll say,” Sink tells me with a twinkle in her eye.

As the conversation comes to a close—surely one of the final Stranger Things interviews Sink will do—her mood turns reflective. “What I’ll always think about most from this show are the friendships,” Sink says. “I feel like childhood friendships can fade as you get older. You’re together in school, then you move on. But with us, that didn’t happen. We always had the show bringing us back together, so those bonds just grew stronger. It’s rare to have people in your life who’ve seen you through so many chapters, watched you grow up, and helped shape who you are. I know these people will be in my life forever, and that’s such a gift to receive at such a young age. And we’re all so different; you don’t always get that kind of diversity in friendships, and it’s taught me a lot about myself and what friendship really means.”

She’ll also have keepsakes: “I took a lot from set,” Sink says. “I asked for a Walkman early on, and they let me keep one, along with a cassette tape. The Duffers also gave me one, so I have a couple now. I have Max’s watch, her shoes, and a skateboard,” she adds, gesturing to a room down the hall off-camera. “My favorite piece, though, is a piece of paper from Season 2—the one on which Max writes, ‘Stop spying on me, creeps,’ crumples it up, and throws it away, which the boys find. The Duffers gave me that on the very last day of filming. It’s already framed.”

And as for what she hopes fans will remember most about Max, when all is said and done? “That she stayed true to herself no matter what she was dealt. Her resilience, and the strength she finds in her friends, is what I hope people take away. She’s been through so much. But she’s strong.”