One of the defining pop culture moments for millennials and Gen Z came when Kate Bush’s exhilarating 'Running Up That Hill' (1985) found a new generation of listeners through Stranger Things season 4 in 2022, and once again in 2025 with season 5. Sadie Sink, who embodies the soul of the song through her portrayal of Max Mayfield, has shared that hearing the track makes her feel “very emotional.”
While the makers have used the song more than once to resurrect Max in the show, Sink admits that isn’t "tired" of hearing it now because she has so many memories attached to it, reports Female First UK.
In an interview with SFX Magazine, she said, "I’m still able to listen to it. I mean, I don’t voluntarily, I’m not listening to it in my free time, but I actually think it’s such a hit and it’s a really good song, so I’m not tired of it, but it definitely is one of those songs that, when I listen to it, it’s very emotional now because it’s so connected to the show. It always brings up these big feelings."
Her on-screen boyfriend Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) tries to connect with her by playing 'Running up that Hill' and she said it was "weird" to hear it again at first.
"I remember being like, ‘Are we really doing this again?’ And we were on that set again, and I was in the same outfit I’d been in since I was 17 years old, and now I was 22, and I was just in the same clothes and in the red void. Obviously, it’s different circumstances, different stakes, so it’s a little bit different, and it doesn’t have the same outcome in the end. But it was this moment of, ‘Whoah, okay, we’re really back here!’ “Especially after the song had become what it did, to go back to that set and do the running again, I was like, ‘Huh, this feels weird’," she recalled.
Most of the time during the season, Max is trapped in Vecna/Henry Creel's mind and Sadie noted that she missed not sharing the screen with Caleb as much as previous seasons.
She revealed, "It’s really sad in a way. I really missed getting to act with Caleb because, like, there were none of my familiar faces around me. It was hard at first. But Max and Lucas, it’s heartbreaking, they’re so connected still in so many ways, him playing the song for her and her hearing it, and then it going away, and them sensing each other’s presence, relying on each other still, but actually not being able to be together."
All the three volumes of Stranger Things season 5 is currently playing on Netflix.