When Sadie Sink was little, she and her brother would watch live tapings of Broadway plays obsessively, then attempt to recreate the shows for their family. “My mom, eventually, was like, ‘Okay, you guys need to get out and do this stuff already,’” she says. “So we moved out into community theaters in our small town, and then eventually regional theater in Houston, and then somehow—both me and my brother around the same time—sent in tapes to audition for Broadway shows, and my brother, got into Elf on Broadway and I got Annie.”

This earned Sink even more acclaim; she played a young Queen Elizabeth in 2015’s The Audience starring Helen Mirren before pivoting to TV and film (The Americans; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; The Glass Castle). But not until signing on to Stranger Things 2 did, as Sink recalls, “everything change.”

The attention drove the now-17-year-old to have to go most places incognito, donning a hat and sunglasses. While fan fervor during the show’s off-season is less intense, its third installment, which hit Netflix on the Fourth of July, is bound to set off plenty more fireworks.

“I can’t say too much, but Season Three is my personal favorite,” says Sink. “This time, you not only get the sci-fi, supernatural element that Stranger Things is known for, but you also get a deeper look into the characters’ personal lives at the beginning of the season. It’s nice to get to know your characters when they’re not in the Upside Down or fighting Demagorgons or dealing with government conspiracies.”

Next up for Sink are starring turns in a few more scary scenarios: Eli, a supernatural thriller set in a haunted hospital (launching on Netflix this year), and the second installment of the R.L. Stine trilogy Fear Street, which is set for 2020. In between, she’s focusing on a healthy lifestyle off-camera—she’s been vegan for four years—lots of yoga, and, of course, scouting out future productions.

“For me, it depends on the character,” Sink explains. “When I’m looking at a potential project, I have to love the script, but I’m really looking for cool characters that are going to be fun to play, that I can not only relate to, but that will also be a challenge.” She pauses for a second, then adds: “I’d love to try some kind of period piece. But instead of the 1980s [like Stranger Things], more like the 1800s.”