Watch Sadie Sink Star as a Visionary Troubadour in ‘O’Dessa’: Exclusive Clip

Fans of Sadie Sink may know her best as Max Mayfield on Netflix’s Stranger Things or as the female lead in Taylor Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film, but they will see a completely different side of her as the titular character in O’Dessa, a dystopian rock opera penned by PattiCake$ director Geremy Jasper.

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The Searchlight Pictures film, which also stars Regina Hall, Murray Bartlett and Kelvin Harrison Jr., premiered at SXSW on March 8 and is available on Hulu starting Thursday (March 20).

Jasper’s plot was ambitious in its breadth. “The original inspiration for the film was a sci-fi musical retelling of the Orpheus myth set in a world that combined the Dust Bowl of the ‘30s with a retro, futuristic, psychedelic sci-fi world,” he says.

In the featurette below, premiering exclusively on Billboard, Sink is a traveling troubadour in a wasteland communicating with her music, but runs afoul of a charismatic dictator, Plutonovich, played by Bartlett. Sink, Jasper and the other main actors also talk about the music in the film in the clip.

It was Sink’s performance in 2022’s The Whale that convinced Jasper to cast her. “Like the rest of the world I knew Sadie as Max, but when I saw her in The Whale, I was knocked out and convinced she could carry this film. Boy, did she,” he says.

Jasper, who has helmed such music videos as Selena Gomez & The Scene’s “Love You Like a Love Song” and Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” (2010 version) also directed the film and co-wrote the songs.

Coming from the world of music videos, Jasper says there was a learning curve when he segued into feature films. “The major skill I learned from making Patti was working with actors, which I had very little experience with,” he says. “It’s become my favorite part of the filmmaking process.”

The movie is billed as a rock opera, which Jasper defines as “the fuzzier, looser, dirtier cousin to the normal musical.” Previous rock operas through the decades left their mark on him.  “My favorite is Diamond Dogs by David Bowie. He was trying to make that concept album a stage show and was obsessed with doing a film version. O’dessa is extremely influenced by it,” he says. “Also, The Wall by Pink Floyd and Jesus Christ Superstar are all-time classics.”

The cast album for O’Dessa is out now on Hollywood Records. “I couldn’t be more excited for people to hear Sadie sing these songs,” says Jasper. 

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