Season 4 of the popular Netflix series Stranger Things ended with the character of Max, played by Sadie Sink, being left in a bad state.
Before setting the playing field for the fifth and final season of the series, season 4 proved to be Max’s season. Facing constant existential threat from a new Freddie Krueger-esque baddie called Vecna, who terrorizes his mental health-suffering victims from his virtual workspace in the Upside Down, we see Max struggling to fight her demons, both literal and psychological.
One powerful tool she uses to help cope: a portable Walkman cassette player, with a tape of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on repeat. Each time she feels the room starts to go dark, she uses the song as a sort of audio Kryptonite to ward off Vecna, who we learn suffers from a serious music allergy.
Clearly this 80s-era artifact meant a great deal to Max, but it was also very meaningful to actor Sadie Sink. So much so, if fact, she asked to keep it when production ended.
She tells British Vogue:
“I’ve never stolen anything from set, but I politely begged to take home the Walkman my character Max uses in season four of Stranger Things.”
Life After Stranger Things
Sink recently opened up about her character’s bittersweet fate as the series comes to a close next season. The actress recently said:
The actor recently co-starred in Darren Aronofsky’s latest film The Whale as Brendan Fraser’s estranged daughter. Fraser, who Sink had never heard of before accepting the role, praised her performance in the film, saying:
“We know that it’s happening and that it’s the last season, so it’s going to be emotional I’m sure. Spoiler-free, just with the way my character ended in Season 4, I have no idea what is going to happen. But I’ll be there. It’s going to be awful. It’s going to be horrible. These kids, this entire cast and crew, it’s family. People say that all the time, but I genuinely mean it. And to think that we have to say goodbye to that security and knowing that we’re going to be seeing each other for another season? It’s scary and sad, but I think it’s exciting to kind of move on to the next chapter, I guess.”
The release date of Stranger Things 5 is TBD, as the Duffer Brothers are still currently writing the script.
“The fluidity that Sadie [Sink] plays, this beautiful controlled rage, was breathtaking to me. I was constantly going up on my lines, and that’s just because I got cobwebs upstairs, and I was wearing a lot of gear, but also because I was just slack jawed, I’m not joking, watching her work. She won the game ball every day we worked, I’m telling you.”
