British Vogue plays third wheel this month, as two of Hollywood’s most in-demand young actors – Stranger Things star Sadie Sink and Hamnet’s Noah Jupe gear up for a 21st-century retelling of Romeo and Juliet in the West End.
In a new interview for the magazine’s March 2026 issue, the pair open up about stepping into Shakespeare’s most famous love story in award-winning director Robert Icke’s adaptation, and how, despite the billboards and glossy promo images already appearing across London, they’ve barely had time to properly hang out.
“We did a chemistry read together and that was, what, like an hour? And then the second time we met,” Sink tells Vogue, before Jupe jumps in with a laugh: “We had to do a full-on photoshoot for it.”
British Vogue March 2026 issue – Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe. Photo Polly Brown
A spark was lit
Sadie Sink, fresh from wrapping up Netflix mega-hit Stranger Things, describes meeting director Robert Icke last summer for what she assumed would be a quick conversation, only for it to turn into a four-hour deep dive that has driven her interpretation of Juliet.
The director of recent Broadway hit Oedipus told her that if she ever felt ready to play Juliet, now was the time.
“It was as if a spark was lit,” she says of Icke’s pitch.
For Icke, it was Sink herself that unlocked the production. “It didn’t start with me shopping around to do Romeo and Juliet,” he explains. “It started with me looking at Sadie and thinking, ‘What could you do?’”
Sink also reflects on the emotional comedown of closing the Stranger Things chapter, calling it less a heartbreak and more a release: “It feels more like a relief that it’s complete and just such a joy to share it with people.”
Jupe, meanwhile, admits he wasn’t exactly composed when he watched the finale. “I was a mess. I was sobbing. I was in the foetal position.”
British Vogue March 2026 issue – Sadie Sink. Photo Polly Brown
Child-actor energy & Shakespeare nerves
Both actors lean into the fact that this Romeo and Juliet hinges on believable youth – because the story does. “We’re child actors!” Sink says. “I think that’s the through-line there. It’s also important we look young and that’s integral to the storyline.”
Jupe arrives with recent Shakespeare mileage thanks to Hamnet, his “first ‘accessible’ encounter” with the Bard, though he admits he once wondered if Shakespeare was “above” film actors. “Can I do Shakespeare if I haven’t been to RADA? That’s the question,” he says.
And as for whether Icke’s adaptation sticks closely to the original? Jupe calls it a “yes and no,” arguing that momentum is everything: “It’s important for us to keep the story moving forward, because ultimately if [the audience] isn’t invested in the characters, it doesn’t matter about the dialogue.”
Sink agrees, teasing a production that isn’t just about a clever concept, but about fully reanimating two kids who fall too hard, too fast: “There are endless opportunities to expand on them… Let’s make it fun.”
British Vogue March 2026 issue – Noah Jupe. Photo Polly Brown
Harold Pinter Theatre, 12 weeks only
The Vogue interview lands as Sink (John Proctor Is the Villain) and Jupe (A Quiet Place) prepare for their hotly anticipated West End debuts in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at the Harold Pinter Theatre, running for 12 weeks only.
They’ll be joined by a cast that includes Clare Perkins as Nurse, John Marquez as Friar Laurence and Clark Gregg as Capulet, with Icke promising an intimate, emotionally charged take on “love and innocence” that brings the lovers’ fate into sharp focus.
Romeo and Juliet is running from 16 March to 6 June 2026 at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London.
See the full feature in the March issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 24th February.
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