Netflix stars answer Queue’s questions about creativity and craft.
In the latest obsession-worthy Halloween horror flick, There’s Someone Inside Your House, Sydney Park plays Makani Young, a high school senior with a mysterious past. As a serial-killer makes their way through the class roster, killing off teens and airing their dirty laundry, Makani has to contend with her own secrets and her future after graduation — that is, if she doesn’t become the killer’s next victim.
Sydney Park’s past is a bit less mysterious than her character’s but equally intriguing. Park began her career as a stand-up comedian at the tender age of six — she was the youngest comedian to ever perform at the Hollywood Improv — and nabbed her first acting job on That’s So Raven at age seven. Since then, the comedic wunderkind has landed serious acting roles on Santa Clarita Diet, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, and The Walking Dead. The Halloween-born actor sat down with Queue to discuss her journey from kid comic to burgeoning scream queen.
Makani Young (Sydney Park)
Queue: What was your first acting role?
Sydney Park: My first acting role was on That’s So Raven. I played Raven’s little sister. I started doing stand-up when I was six, and one night there was a showcase and Joey Paul, a pretty big casting director at Disney, and Marc Warren, a writer and the showrunner at the time on That’s So Raven, saw me and were like, “We’ve got to bring this crazy kid in.” They brought me in to read my own original characters, and they made a part for me to play Raven’s little sister. And everything else blossomed after that.
What film or TV show made you fall in love with acting or with comedy?
SP: You know, it’s wild. My mom would always do these mock interviews with me and I would pretend I was Alicia Keys. My dad would just be recording on the little camcorder and [on one of these recordings] when I was three years old, I said, “Mom, I want to be on TV.” I don’t even know what I saw. I don’t remember what I watched. I think I was just always performing, always doing some performance in the living room, in my little ballerina outfits. And my parents were like, “Okay, kiddo. We’ll see.” Yeah. And it just happened.
What do you remember about the first time you saw yourself on camera?
SP: I remember feeling very strange when I first saw myself on camera. I was embarrassed, but also it was exciting and different, and new and cool in a lot of ways, just because I didn’t really grow up seeing a lot of kids who looked like me in the mainstream media and TV and film and all that. So it was pretty cool. I was just nervous.
Caleb Greeley (Burkely Duffield), Makani Young (Sydney Park), Alex Crisp (Asjha Cooper), Darby (Jesse Latourette), and Zach Sanford (Dale Whibley)
When did you first become involved in There’s Someone Inside Your House?
SP: Okay, this is a whole story that I will try to keep short. I was out having a really fun night with my friends and my parents and we were eating Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in Los Angeles. And I remember one of my friends was like, “Are you going out for this movie called There’s Someone Inside Your House? It sounds like you should go out for it.” I had no idea. So I didn’t even get a chance to really tell my agents or anything. And then literally, in the next couple of days, I got an audition for it. And Rich Delia, our casting director, brought me in and the process happened fast. I went in for a first read. And then I met producer Dan Cohen, director Patrick Brice, and writer Henry Gayden. And that was it.
What was it like working with the cast of There’s Someone Inside Your House?
SP: Working with the cast was a dream, and I feel like we definitely are family now. I call them the kids, the kiddos, because they’re my kids. And it was just amazing, truly. It is super special and I think we were all really fortunate to have bonded so well because we all come from different walks of life, but it didn’t really matter. I think we all have our strengths in the friendship. And there’s no drama in the group, it’s just love and support.
Was there a scene that you found either the most challenging or the most memorable in the filming process?
SP: I would say one of my favorite scenes and probably the most challenging was the hospital scene. We had been going back and forth with shooting in the cornfield, and that felt like it was neverending because in Vancouver, it’s raining. So we had to take cover and go to different sets and stuff. But it was really emotional because I feel like this is when Makani opens up the most and we see a lot of her vulnerability and that internal passive side of her just fades away, even though she still keeps very much to herself.
Makani Young (Sydney Park)
If you could use one word to describe your character, what would you use?
SP: I want to say “sad girl for life.” No, okay, this is a weird one, but I think it’s accurate: fleeting.
What is your passion outside of acting?
SP: My passion outside of acting is definitely painting, being creative. I always loved drawing as a kid, sketching, and arts and crafts, even though I used to call it “arts and crabs,” and my mom would be like, “Syd, it’s not right.” That was two weeks ago. I’m kidding. But yeah, I love to draw, paint, and create.
What is something from pop culture that you are currently obsessed with?
SP: One thing I’m obsessed with in pop culture. I’d say it’s being yourself and not really caring what people think about you and doing what makes you happy. I think there’s a toxic side to people saying, “Do whatever you want and be free,” because you don’t want to be an asshole. You’ve got to be nice to people and be kind and conscious. But I love that there’s more of a collective embrace of the human race and what it means to be different.