Stranger Things star Sadie Sink is the latest actor to lambast audience members for unseemly behavior at theaters.
Sink, a Tony nominee, is currently performing Romeo & Juliet on London’s West End. The 24-year-old discussed theater etiquette with Nylon, telling the magazine that certain audience behavior fills her with “so much rage.”
“The lights go off, and then I just see all these faces in the audience because everyone is turning their phone on,” she said of her time on the West End. “I’m like, ‘Guys, give it a minute. Take it in for a second!’”
“I am filled with so much rage when I see, like, three iPhones in the audience,” added Sink, who has been acting in theater since the age of nine.
The actress rose to prominence after joining the cast of Netflix’s runaway hit, Stranger Things, in 2017. She took a hiatus from Broadway but returned in 2025’s John Proctor is the Villain, gaining critical acclaim and award nominations. She now plays Juliet in Robert Icke’s adaptation of the play.
Her views on theater etiquette match those of fellow stars.
Just last month, Golden Globe-winner Rosamund Pike tore into an audience member during a performance of Inter Alia at London’s Wyndham Theatre. Pike called out the audience member for texting during the show’s climax, allegedly leaving the entire crowd “stunned,” according to The Times.
Several actors, including Imelda Staunton, Andrew Scott, Daniel Craig, Patti LuPone, and Benedict Cumberbatch, have had similar complaints about theater audiences, according to the site.
The Pitt’s Isa Brione brought a similar issue to light when she called out rude audience behavior on Instagram.
“HEY HEY HEY!” Briones, who was performing a limited run as Connie Franciin in the Broadway musical Just in Time, wrote in her post. “Once again, broadway is not a circus. Do not yell whatever you want at the performers. Yelling ‘when are you going to finish your charts’ before I sing Who’s Sorry Now is so f--king disrespectful to the performers onstage and your fellow audience members. Yall are p----- me off.”
“Love and light,” she concluded, “and please remember you are occupying shared spaces and watching art.”
