Sadie Sink wasn’t aware of who Brendan Fraser was when she first met him for a table reading of The Whale. While for anyone over a certain age it seems hard to believe that someone could have gone any distance through life without discovering the likes of The Mummy, George of the Jungle, or Fraser’s other hits from the late 1990s/2000s, it should be remembered that 20-year-old Sink was not born when many of the actor’s biggest hits were released. This lack of knowledge of Fraser’s past only meant that she was very casual about it when the pair met. She told Insider:

“I met Brendan for the first time about a year before the movie started filming. I think Darren and Sam, the writer, wanted to hear it read aloud. So they assembled a group of actors to just come to this theater in the East Village and read The Whale. I didn’t know who [Brendan Fraser] was. I was unfamiliar with his work, but I was just like, “Hey, nice to meet you.”

In The Whale, Sink plays Ellie, the estranged daughter of Fraser’s Charlie. Sink went on to note that while there is a very hostile relationship between the characters, she was able to get to know Fraser “a little better” when they started shooting the movie. She continued:

“It’s such a tricky dynamic that our two characters have. But throughout the rehearsal process, he was such a trooper. Some of the things that Ellie has to say to him, it’s not easy stuff to take. But we just really, really trusted each other and because of that, I think we were fully comfortable with one another.”

Related: Sadie Sink Says The Whale Co-Star Brendan Fraser is Her 'Favorite Human on the Planet'

Sadie Sink Has Been Highly Praised by Brendan Fraser for Her Performance

While there is no doubt that The Whale is Brendan Fraser’s film, Sadie Sink builds on her emotional Stranger Things performance to be a real presence in the movie. This is something that Fraser himself has been pointing out in interviews as he has lavished praise onto the young star. He said of Sink:

“The fluidity that Sadie 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 just slack jawed, I’m not joking, watching her work. She won the game ball every day we worked, I’m telling you.”

Sink herself has taken much of her success in her stride, but there is no doubt that she has grown as an actress since joining Stranger Things as Max in season two. After the latest season, it is unclear whether Max will have a happy ending in the show after being left in a coma after her finale encounter with Vecna. Unfortunately, fans still have a while to wait to discover the truth about Max’s fate, but fans of Sink can catch the actress in The Whale in theaters now.