SADIE SINK — On Learning to Skate

By now, you should have had enough time to binge your way through the second season of Stranger Things. If you did, then you are familiar with the newly introduced character, Max. Played by Sadie Sink, Max is a full-blown skater right down to her vans and vintage ‘80s Madrid board. While she does a great job in this role, Sadie Sink had never stepped on a skateboard before being cast. Sadie recently sat down with Vanity Fair, and gave some insight into what it took to learn to shred. She also reveals that Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike, also skates.

As one might expect, Sink and her cool-girl character aren’t totally alike. For one thing, the real-life Sink is neither a skateboarder nor an arcade dweller. (It’s hard to blame her; do arcades even exist anymore?) Skateboarding lessons were a particularly rough part of getting into character: “It was my first time ever being on a skateboard, so I was already really, really scared . . . It’s a really weird feeling. You feel like you have absolutely no control and you don’t know what’s going on. So just at that moment I was like, ‘Oh jeez, this isn’t looking good for me. This is going to be a rough process.’“

Luckily, Sink eventually got the hang of the sport—and sometimes, she had company. Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike, also skates, Sink said, and would occasionally join her for her skate lessons. But while he knew what he was doing, the novice Sink was loaded down with safety gear.

“They would put me in knee pads, elbow pads, and then this giant helmet,” Sink said with a laugh. “I always felt stupid at the skate park. Everyone else is just wiping out and getting hurt, but they didn’t even have helmets and knee pads—and I’m over here looking like some kind of marshmallow. I felt so ridiculous.”

Head over to Vanity Fair to read the entire article. Stranger Things Season 2 is currently available for streaming via Netflix.