‘It feels like flying!’ Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe on child stardom, passion and the heady rush of Romeo and Juliet

Fresh from Stranger Things and Hamnet, the pair are surprised to find themselves playing Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers in the West End. They talk chemistry, dating apps – and what they’ve taught director Robert Icke

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oah Jupe and Sadie Sink are comparing their CVs. “Noah has more Shakespeare experience than me, for sure,” says Sink. “Oh yes, I think so,” replies Jupe. “How many lines?” asks Sink. “Quite a few, actually,” he reports. “More than 10!”

If Jupe wanted to flex, he could say in all truth that he played Hamlet when he was only 19. That was two summers ago, when he stood on the stage in a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and asked “To be or not to be?” in Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-nominated adaptation of Hamnet.

But playing an actor playing Hamlet was, he admits, in no way based on experience: “Sadly, until now, Shakespeare wasn’t really something I was interested in.” He never got on with the plays at school. “It was taught in this way that was so boring and intellectual that it just went in one ear and out the other. You didn’t find any passion for it.”