Tony-Nominated Sadie Sink Talks ‘John Proctor Is The Villain’, ‘Stranger Things’ And Joining The Marvel Universe – Deadline Q&A

There are so many startling, perspective-shifting scenes in Kimberly Belflower’s Tony Award-nominated play John Proctor Is The Villain that two people discussing the plot can easily make incorrect assumptions about exactly which shocking scene they’re addressing. Read on for a perfect example in this conversation with star Sadie Sink.

For her unsettling and remarkably affecting performance in John Proctor, Sink, who shot to fame in 2016 when she joined the second season of Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things as Maxine “Max” Mayfield, has been Tony-nominated for Best Leading Actress In A Play.

To say Sink is on a career roll is an understatement. In addition to starring in one of the Broadway season’s most acclaimed productions, she’ll be back in Hawkins, Indiana, when Stranger Things returns for its fifth and final season later this year. And she recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with her casting in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day opposite Tom Holland and Zendaya. Online rumors abound about which character she’ll be playing – best money is on Mayday Parker, daughter of Holland’s Peter Parker.

But Sink launched her career on stage. In 2012, at age 10, she joined the cast of Broadway’s Annieand three years later returned in The Audience opposite Helen Mirren.

But her role as Shelby Holcomb must surely be among her most challenging. Belflower’s play, directed on Broadway by Danya Taymor (another Tony nominee, and a winner for last year’s The Outsiders) is set in a small-town Georgia high school in 2018, the height of the MeToo movement. Sink’s Shelby returns to the school, her former friend group and the group’s beloved literature teacher (played by the Tony-nominated Gabriel Ebert), after a mysterious, extended absence following the disclosure that she had slept with the boyfriend of her best friend.

Spoiler Alert in case you somehow haven’t already heard.

The teacher, who leads his select honors students through a study of Arthur Miller’s The Crucibleis a sexual predator, and the play includes a truly unnerving scene in which Shelby finally names names. Like Abigail in The Crucibleyoung Shelby has been misused and abandoned by an older man – whether Miller knew it or not, John Proctor really is the villain – and Belflower draws an unmistakeable line from that classic depiction of the Salem witch trials (and McCarthy-era allegory) to this “one-stoplight town” in 2018. But unlike Miller’s teenage “witches” in those long ago woods, when Belflower’s girls finally dance, it’s not about summoning the devil, but driving him out.

In this conversation, Sink talks about those two scenes, Stranger Things and possible Easter eggs in Broadway’s Stranger Things: The First Shadowand Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

John Proctor Is The Villain is playing at Broadway’s Booth Theatre through July 6. Nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Play, it stars Sink, Nihar Duvvuri, Tony-nominated Gabriel Ebert, Molly Griggs, Maggie Kuntz, Hagan Oliveras, Morgan Scott, Tony-nominated Fina Strazza and Amalia Yoo.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

DEADLINE: So Broadway at 10, Broadway again three years later, and now your third time gets you a Tony nomination. What keeps you coming back to Broadway?

SADIE SINK: Broadway actors, I think, are some of the most amazing athletes in this craft. I’ve always just had the highest respect for theater, and obviously it raised me as well, and then I kind of got swept away by the film and TV of it all, but going back to it was really important to me. One, to see if I could still do it and also I just knew it would be a huge learning curve to return to it as an adult. Just to kind of touch back on what brought me into acting in the first place. I couldn’t be luckier to have found Kimberly’s play, this incredible ensemble piece that’s extraordinarily well written and just felt really important.

DEADLINE: How did you find the play? How did it come to you?

SINK: Kimberly’s agent sent it to my agent and then I read it and just couldn’t put it down, and immediately after I was like, We need to do some kind of workshop of this, not really with the intent of oh this is going to make it to Broadway but because it is an awesome play. We met with Dania and she was really excited to do it. This was before she got her Tony for The Outsiders too. So, she was on board and stayed on board even after the Tony win, which just proves how dedicated she was to this play.

So we did a three day workshop of it. Fina Strazza, who plays Beth and is a Tony nominee as well, did the workshop too and it was just kind of super magical. Some great producers and theater owners got to see that workshop and then it took off from there. You know, being a Broadway kid, I would spend so much time doing random workshops and readings of different musicals that never actually went anywhere.

DEADLINE: When you first read it, did you have a character in mind that you wanted to do, or was it specifically pitched to you with a character?

SINK: It was presented to me like, have her look at Shelby or Raelynn and see who she responds to. Immediately I was, okay I think I’m a Shelby. Every character is so well-rounded which is why this play works so well, but something about Shelby, like she really is the Abigail track of this play in terms of its parallels to The Crucible. I just thought she was incredibly complex for obvious reasons that you come to learn in the show but I was really driven to her humor as well. She’s so witty and quick and has a lot of good in her but also is carrying so much fire within her as well.

DEADLINE: You said at the beginning of this conversation that Broadway actors have to be so athletic. What did you do to prepare for this role both physically and emotionally, because there’s a scene at the end that requires a lot of physical stamina, and emotionally because of the revelations your character makes?

SINK: In terms of the physical aspects of it, I love when a role requires a lot of physicality, whether it’s like stunt work in film and TV. I just think it’s such a tool when you’re going all out physically. I’ve been training a lot and just keeping up my physical strength, just making sure my body is strong and nourished. I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life right now because of it.

In terms of the emotional stamina, that takes the cake for the biggest challenge. I think I grew so accustomed in film and TV to just kind of, you know, getting one or two or three good takes of really giving it your all and then it’s like, okay, moving on. You never have to do that scene again. So I really was kind of concerned going into this show of is the emotional weight of the text going to lose its potency through repetition in any way, but what I found is that the more you do it it not only becomes a muscle memory but you just get so tied to your character through it.

I have noticed there are performances where afterwards it doesn’t feel very good or certain scenes do feel a little bit icky. The gas station scene with Raelynn. [The scene features Sink’s Shelby and Amalia Yoo’s Raelynn emotionally reconnecting after an estrangement, and Shelby speaking for the first time about her sexual grooming by their favorite teacher.] When you’re in the intimacy of the film and TV world it’s easier to kind of let that guard down, but on stage you’re so vulnerable and your guards want to go up in front of a live audience. But something Dania told me would just kind of unleash something: She was just like, Use Shelby as a shield, in a way, protecting you from the audience who maybe is coming in to see Max from Stranger Things or coming to see Sadie Sink or whatever. Just use the character to become a vessel for Shelby, so any vulnerability isn’t coming from you yourself. It’s to honor her. That shifted my mentality.

DEADLINE: And, I would imagine, to honor all the girls out there who have experienced the same things as Shelby. What kind of feedback are you getting from girls and women who have experienced what your character experiences?

SINK: I get that a lot at the stage door, which is a huge responsibility and a huge honor too when I hear someone has experienced something like that, or maybe not exactly like Shelby’s case but something along those lines. So many women have gone through it. So whether you’re a young girl who’s gone through it recently or currently, or you’re a grown-up who’s revisiting those moments, the play really opens that up for people. It’s something that’s never lost on me. Even if I’m having a really hard week where I’m exhausted and it’s like god I don’t want to do this exorcism on stage again tonight, like I really don’t, but then you have those moments at the stage door where it’s, like, no we’re really reaching people. To have that immediate feedback, there’s nothing like it. It’s the beauty of live theater.

DEADLINE: The ‘exorcism’ scene you mentioned, when I was there the entire audience just kind of gasped. Are you aware of the reaction as it’s happening?

SINK: Yeah, I mean it’s so loud. When it’s happening I can’t really see anything because there’s these big strobe lights on us, and you kind of lose awareness of anything around you. I remember after the first couple of previews, I’m like I just made an absolute fool of myself. Like, I don’t really know what I’m doing right now and if this is even working, but okay. Whatever. Let’s just go for it.

DEADLINE: It occurs to me that maybe we have different exorcism scenes in mind. What’s your exorcism scene?

SINK: Oh, my exorcism is the big dance at the end, the final 30 seconds of it. You’re thinking Scene 10?

DEADLINE: I don’t know the number but I’m guessing…

SINK: Yeah, that’s the blackout scene. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean that’s a whole other beast.

DEADLINE: That’s when I heard the gasps, when the audience found out what this man – the teacher – really is.

SINK: That scene is so tricky but I always love doing it because it feels like a huge exhale once the truth is out there because during the first half of the show, especially during rehearsals and previews, I just felt so awkward the whole time because most of the work that I’m doing is not something that people are aware of. We rely on the audience’s prejudices against Shelby at first, but being Shelby then is super awkward.

You know eventually the people will understand you but you just kind of have to embrace the fact that you are being judged and that you are being misunderstood. So when that scene kind of happens and we learn more about Shelby’s history and what she’s coping with, you feel the audience kind of come to your side, and that’s been a really soft place to land for me every night.

DEADLINE: Have any of your Stranger Things cast mates been to see the show?

SINK: Yeah. A lot of them came opening night, which was really nice. Gaten [Matarazzo, who has appeared in Broadway productions multiple times, most recently in 2023’s Sweeney Todd] has been a huge supporter so he was super proud…I know how much he loves Broadway, and the fact that he was willing to go back so many times, that’s just pure theater kid joy and passion right there. It’s something we’ve always had in common, so when he heard I was doing this play he was just so excited.

DEADLINE: Have you seen the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow?

SINK: I saw it in London and I also saw it in New York.

DEADLINE: I know you can’t give out clues about what’s going to happen on the upcoming season of Stranger Thingsbut I’m wondering if anything that happens in the play has any correlation to what happens on Season Five of the TV series?

SINK: It might. There are definitely some easter eggs I spotted for sure.

DEADLINE: And you’re finished filming Season Five, right?

SINK: Yes, we’re done.

DEADLINE: Do you know when it’s coming back?

SINK: I don’t know if it’s been announced yet. I’m kind of out of the loop on that.

DEADLINE: And I have to ask about SpiderMan: Brand New Day. There are lots of rumors online about what character you’ll be playing. Are you ready to say anything yet?

SINK: No. I see a lot of rumors too. They’ve been really cool to read. I love the Marvel Universe. I mean they’re awesome Rumor.