24 Minutes with Stranger Things star, Sadie Sink

So you’ve had a crazy last two years. How did you mentally prepare yourself for Stranger Things? Knowing you were entering something that would take you to another level?

There is really no way to prepare yourself; I had no idea what it was going to be like. I knew that Stranger Things had a lot of different worlds that I hadn’t experienced before, but because I had never experienced it I didn’t know how to prepare for it. I just threw myself into it. The main focus was the acting for me. It seems different now. I can’t recognize myself.

Were you nervous?

Not really, I was more excited. There was a lot of speculation going around about my character, Max: who was this new girl; what is she doing; I don’t know if I like this. I was just ready to bring Max out; I wanted to learn about me as a person. Once it came out, it was like a relief. It was really nice when it came out.

When you feel like you want to stop being famous Sadie from Stranger Things and just be regular Sadie, what do you do?

For me, I am always regular Sadie, wherever I am; I feel more regular Sadie than Stranger Things Sadie. In my home town, with my friends, nobody really treats me differently. I have the same group of friends I have had for the past four years, so before any of this. They don’t change around me; they are the same people and treat me like the same Sadie, so I guess when it gets overwhelming, I just go to them.

You are involved in fashion, too. I was wondering what your first experience was with fashion? What first drew your interest?

I have always had an interest in fashion and when I was little I dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. And I would always be sketching dresses and stuff like that. But you know, before Stranger Things, I was never given the opportunity to wear or experience any of the brands that I am able to wear now, those higher-end brands that I can wear on red carpets and in photo shoots. I guess the first experience I had with fashion, when I realized there was more to it, was when I did my first fashion shoot. I remember the stylist brought out all these beautiful dresses by brands I had never even heard of and I was like, wow, there are a lot more brands out there than I thought.

Who was your favourite designer or brand when you were a kid? Who did you look up to?

I didn’t really know any other fashion designers, apart from the smaller brands I was wearing. I guess that was when I was like 10. What was my favourite brand? I want to say something really extravagant like Prada or Chanel, because they are really big and I considered them untouchable.

Tell me about your relationship with your stylist. You met her at your first shoot and then kept working with her?

Well, Molly [Dickson] never puts me in anything I don’t feel comfortable in, you know; she is very open to discussing my style and very big on being true to my style. You know, there are a lot of people who will just put me in clothes and say, ‘Yes that is what you are wearing, now go’. You don’t really get your say and that scares me. But with Molly, she never pushes anything or makes me wear any particular brands. She asks me, ‘Do you like this? Is this you? Is this your style?’ And whatever I say, she is OK, and that’s the main reason we really clicked.

You mentioned brands like Prada and Chanel being untouchable. How does it feel now you have access to this world?

It is different, I have a different relationship to these brands. I can touch them, experience and actually wear them now, so they are not so untouchable. I now realize there is more to fashion than things having to match: you can mix things up; you can mix different styles together; you can go crazy… Whatever you feel comfortable in is what works, basically.

Is that how you define your personal style? Comfort?

Comfort is key for me, yes, but also, I wouldn’t really limit myself to one specific style. I like to try all sorts of stuff: I can be edgy sometimes; I can be cute and girlie sometimes; I can be chic. Whatever I am feeling that day. Which is what’s so great about fashion – you are given the opportunity to trial these different styles. I am not very particular about what styles I like; I am willing to try anything, as long as the clothes make me feel happy. You can mix a girlie top with some edgy boots, stuff like that, you can mix it up.

So you are vegan now, but when did you first decide to go vegetarian?

I have been vegan for two years, and it doesn’t seem like a long time for me. I was vegetarian for a year before that. I decided to go vegetarian when I was at this restaurant with my friend; there was this buffet area and this whole roasted pig, and you could see everything. It was so gross. I was super grossed out by it and I realized that that was bacon, ham, pork, the stuff I was eating on a daily basis, but now I was seeing the whole animal and I was totally grossed out. So I questioned bacon and other meat like that. That was when I made the connection, that meat was actual animals and what I was actually putting in my body. That was when I decided to cut out meat. I think a lot of people think that way, too. In America, eating meat is so normal, and people are blinded by what they are eating. But when you can all of a sudden see the animal you are eating, people get grossed out. So that was what convinced me to become vegetarian.

How did your family take it?

I grew up in Texas, where it’s all about barbecues. All my family ate meat, it was the normal thing, and I was blinded by that and thought eating meat was normal. I tried to go vegetarian earlier–I was 11 or 12–and I did for a week, but then we had some family visit and they noticed I wasn’t eating meat and they were like, ‘Hey, you’re not going vegetarian on us, are you?’ And I was like, ‘Oh shoot, am I weird now?’ So I quit, like, ‘This is weird! I have to eat meat!’ That was what prevented me from going vegetarian a bit earlier, but now veganism, and being vegetarian has become a very big topic and I think people are starting to understand it a little bit more. My family is totally 100-percent supportive of it. At first, they didn’t understand, but now they are really supportive and I think one of my brothers is vegetarian because of it, and my mum went vegan for a while. It is just nice to know I am inspiring others.

And then you went vegan after you were in The Glass Castle with Woody Harrelson?

When I was vegetarian but not vegan, my friends didn’t think it was too weird. But then one of my friends said, ‘You better not go vegan on us!’ I was like, &lsq