Hollywood newcomer Sarah Yarkin isn’t your typical “coming-of-age” movie actress.
Instead, she’s spent the last couple of years building a reputation for herself as an all around on-screen badass. Last year, she dominated the lead role “Melody” in Netflix’s rendition of the iconic Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and most recently portrayed the beatnik, feisty teenage ghost “Rhonda” in the new Paramount+ YA series School Spirits, whose stuck in the afterlife after being murdered by her guidance counselor in 1963. These, along with a handful of other diverse roles under her belt over the last six years, Yarkin’s resume proves she’s an actress that can easily compete with her other 20-something peers.
When not in character, Yarkin exudes alacrity – she’s quite sweet and somewhat modest. When she was in college, she started to teach herself how to play guitar and piano, and slowly began turning what were once diary entries into songs. In 2022, she started releasing her own original music, which she explains was extremely cathartic. “Rosy Glasses,” a song Yarkin seemingly wrote about a past relationship, landed a sync in episode 5 of School Spirits after bonding with the creator Nate Trirund over similar musical tastes.
Just before the season finale of School Spirits, 1883 Magazine chats with Yarkin about the playing high school outcast ghost Rhonda, starring in a legendary horror reboot, and her approach to channeling vulnerability in songwriting.
First off, congratulations on the release of School Spirits! How does it feel to be a part of this series?
Oh, thank you. It’s been really exciting – it’s actually something I’m really proud of. I think the whole cast really bonded as we were making it. The creators Megan and Nate Trirund were amazing, and Oliver the showrunner – we really became, I know it’s so cheesy, but like a little family! We really had an incredible experience working on set, and to get to see it now, we are just so proud of the work we’ve made.
Do you read any of the fan / critic reactions to the series?
You know, they tell you not to do that. Of course, we’re doing that! My mom sends me everything that’s been written about the show even though I tell her not to. I think when the Wall Street Journal reviewed it, of course, I read the article, haha! And of course my uncle, who doesn’t read things, sent me the link. I was like,”thank you so much, but I’m trying not to do this!” Overall what I have seen and what I’m trying not to see, is that we’ve gotten really good reviews for the most part! And I think for a YA Show that’s really exciting. I don’t think people’s expectations are always the highest for a “teen” show. What’s also been really exciting is learning the audience is a lot broader than they even expected. I think when you hear YA, you think it’s for the teens only. And to hear people that are my parents’ age, or my age, or in their thirties or forties watching it and being really excited by the mystery of it, and thinking it’s good has been really exciting to hear too. Teens liking it is also exciting because I think it could be a hard audience to win over!
The subject matter of the show is super relatable to people of all ages, so that makes a lot of sense! I’ve been seeing a lot of great reviews online about it too, and I myself am enjoying it! Granted, I’ve been a fan of a lot of the YA teen dramas in the past, but this one has a little bit more depth to it, maturity and emotion.
I completely agree with you! I’m really glad you’re enjoying it.
What originally drew you to the role of Rhonda?
I’ve always wanted to do a period piece, or play someone from another time. I think I connect with that –I sometimes feel like I’m not from this time, like I’m not great with technology, so I’m always excited by the idea of playing someone from the 40s, 50s or 60s. You know, Rhonda died in the 60s and she’s stuck in that time basically. She’s just so cool, and I’ve never booked anything where someone is that cool! I guess, that doesn’t come naturally but, I was kind of intimidated when I was reading her character. When I did the audition tape with my friend, I was really low energy. I was just really tired that day, and they liked it! That was crazy. And so I was kind of intimidated even to go on set and I was like, “damn, they’re going to see right through this that I’m not actually cool at all!” It was exciting to get that opportunity.
Do you think you’re similar to Rhonda at all?
Yeah! I think in every character that I play or get to play or embody, there’s always an element of you or of me that is that character. It’s not fully me, but there’s an element, or there’s some essence that’s there. described Rhonda as Sarah of me when I’m just done, like a day that I am done. I have no more left, I am done! I think that’s Rhonda’s energy basically all the time. Max Winkler directed the first two episodes, and the first couple days we were shooting and I was really being really hard on myself. I was like, “am I doing this right? I feel like Rhonda, am I being cool?” And Max looked at me and he said, “Sarah’s up here.” And he put his hands high, as if my energy was high. “Rhonda’s down here,” and his hands lower. Then he said, “Rhonda’s not weak. Rhonda’s not neurotic. Rhonda’s strong.” And I asked, “did you just call me weak and neurotic?” And he laughed, but I think it was a reminder. He kept putting his hands lower and kind of being like, “down here,” like motioning to the ground. Like, “Rhonda’s down there.” And I think just remembering that it’s me when I’m done, like I had it. And that’s sort of how I got into character for Rhonda.
I think in life, I’m much more animated and high energy. And in certain situations, we’d laugh all the time and Max was like, omg, but Rhonda would never laugh in these situations. It was exciting to get to explore someone who starts at that level and then to see her when the stakes are higher or in situations where she has to change or do something else to prove something. It felt like a challenge at the beginning and I felt like I was sort of getting the hang of it by the end. I hope so at least!
You definitely fooled us if you felt like you weren’t getting the hang of it! I thought you played Rhonda perfectly! When you first took on the role, were you aware of her full story and what was going to be revealed later in the season? Just full transparency, I have watched through the end, so that plot twist is what I’m referring to!
Oh my God. You saw the season finale?
Yes, I watched it yesterday! It’s so good.
Oh wow, I just watched it. Nick [Pugliese] and I just watched it and we were like, wait, it’s actually really different than what we thought it was going to be, and we called Peyton immediately. When I auditioned for the role it was three different scenes, and one of the scenes was me talking about how I was killed, and so I basically only knew up to that. I knew some of my backstory of me and my guidance counselor, how he murdered me and beyond that, I did not know anything that happened. As we started shooting and the whole cast was trying to figure out who did it, like what happened to Maddie. Megan and Nate, the creators, pulled me aside at a certain point and said, “we’re gonna tell you what happened. You cannot tell anyone and if you tell anyone, we will know,” because they didn’t tell anyone else in the cast. None of us knew what happened. They said, “we’re gonna tell you because it affects your character.” And so I hid this little secret, I felt very special. I told no one. But everyone was like, do you know, do you know? Trying to figure it out so bad/ And I was like, oh no, I have no idea. And that was my greatest acting role to this date, lying to everyone for two months.
Talk about a plot twist in episode 8! Did you know leading up to that episode that Rhonda was going undercover to try and figure out what Mr. Martin is up to?
It was right when we were going to start shooting. I was really struggling understanding why Rhonda was agreeing to work with Mr. Martin. I really didn’t get it. I pulled him aside and I said, “I don’t understand her motivation. Why would Rhonda, knowing who she is and her backstory of never trusting a person of power, why would she ever work with him?” We had dinner one night and we were talking about our lives and our families and this and that. I think they (the creators) were each like one drink in, and Megan started to tell me, and Nate goes, “what are you doing?” And Megan was like, “she has to know!” So from that point, I don’t know what week that was, maybe that was before episode four or so. Looking back on it, I kind of wish I knew the whole time, but it didn’t really matter in the first couple episodes. At that point, I was really having a hard time understanding why this character was doing certain things.
What do you hope to see Rhonda do and accomplish in possible future seasons of School Spirits?
Oh, fingers crossed. If, hopefully, we get some future seasons, I really hope we get new outfits and new hairdos, hah! Yes, I think that’s the number one change. I told Megan and Nate that I feel like the next season should be the ghosts. We are undercover, right, and need to wear new clothes. So that was my pitch. I’d love to see Rhonda fall in love and trust someone as well!
I think she definitely might earn trust though, especially after everything unfolds in episode eight. So I could definitely see that happening for her!
Yeah. This dying for love and trust, you know.
One of my favourite things is when actors also have music projects. I had a chance to listen to some of your music, and I love the nostalgic undertones – your voice is so soothing and lovely! How long have you been writing original music?
Oh my God, thank you so much! That really means a lot. It’s something I’m silly, sort of scared or embarrassed talking about but, I’m getting better. I started writing music towards the end of college, and I was just trying to process some things I was going through. And I’ve been playing piano and singing really just for myself for a couple years. I didn’t tell anyone that I sang or was learning piano. I started writing music – it was almost like a journal for me. And then I just continued learning piano, and then learned guitar, and it just became kind of like a constant in my life of how I processed the world, I guess!
Your song “Rosy Glasses” was featured in episode 5 of School Spirits. How did that come about? Did you write the song with the show in mind, or was it pitched after the fact?
No! So this was the most exciting thing ever. When we were shooting, Nate [the creator] and I realized we had a lot of the same taste in music and loved a lot of the same bands. We kept making each other playlists, and the songs we liked and what we were listening to and discussed what we thought made sense for the show. He ended up forwarding a bunch of these playlists to the music supervisor, Whitney, who is amazing. Jokingly, I put “Rosy Glasses,” my song that had been out for like a year, on it and I said “you know, I bet you could get this one really cheap.” Then, like several months later when they were editing, I got a call from Nate and he was like, “Hey, I know you put that on as a joke, but like, were you joking? Would it be okay if we used this one?” And I fully did not believe him until I saw a cut and it was in there. It was quite overwhelming to hear a song that I wrote and then I produced it with a friend in the show. I never really had any intention of doing anything with it. It was just a thing I wrote for myself. And to have it even be considered for the show meant the world to me. I had written it about two years ago after a breakup, and it was a really personal little song. I was beyond words when I heard it in the show!
I often find that actors who are also artists write music based on fictional characters and stories vs their own life experiences. How do you approach songwriting?
That is a really good idea and I should do that! I’ve struggled with this feeling like I’m not very good at extrapolating from my own life and my own experiences. So often I write things, it’s sort of like a diary or type of journal of really exactly what’s happening in my life. And then I get to my guitar and I want to get a little better at maybe using my imagination more. Or like you said, writing as another character, because it can be quite exposing when you’re writing about your friends or relationships or how you feel. It’s pretty vulnerable and kind of scary to put out there.
Is music something you think you’ll continue to pursue along with your acting career? Yeah! I’m actually staring at my equipment that I bought here. I’m trying to learn how to record my own stuff and use the software. I’m not very good at that yet, but I’m trying to get there. Every day I pick up my guitar and mess around, or I write a song on the train cuz I was sad, stuff like that. And I think I’ll always be doing it in my life whether or not I’m putting it out there publicly. I would love to meet people, collaborators that have the same vision or sound or are excited about the same things as me, but it doesn’t feel like a rush. There’s no pressure on it because acting is my focus and it’ll always be there. I always travel, I always come to set with a guitar, you know.
I’ve heard of actors creating playlists for their characters before or during production. Did you create one for Rhonda? If so, what songs were on it? If not, what songs do you think would be on it?
Oh, that’s great. I basically started making playlists, not necessarily just for Rhonda, but for the show and sending them to Nate for ideas. I was listening to a lot of Sharon Van Etten, a lot of Angel Olsen. It was interesting because I’ve been on other projects where I definitely made character playlists, and I felt this pressure in researching Rhonda to be authentic. You know, she’s from 1963, what is she listening to? I was researching like all the beatnik poets and Kerouac. I was trying to read all their stuff and I was like, oh, she sings jazz. And I was trying to listen to stuff, and it just wasn’t inspiring to me. I was trying to be as realistic to her in the time period and it felt a little like I couldn’t connect in the same way to those songs as I couldn’t with, you know, the artists I named.
Not so similarly to School Spirits, but last year you starred in Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. How was that experience?
Yeah, I joked after doing that movie and said “all I wanna do is a movie where I’m like on the couch, warm in sweatpants, and drinking tea” because it wasn’t the most physically comfortable experience. And I was just talking to a friend that he asked me yesterday about it randomly and I said, “you know, I’ve learned a lot from that experience. I really admire anyone who does horror, like acting in horror movies. It’s emotionally grueling and draining.” Yeah, it’s hard. I learned a lot from it and I’m really grateful for that experience. And then I’m grateful for School Spirits, where I get to joke with friends and laugh and not feel like this pressure to cry in every scene or emotionally get to that kind of state, you know?
I would imagine filming a movie like that must be pretty heavy.
I just actually ran into Elsie Fisher last week at a movie, and we were talking about Texas Chainsaw and when we shot it in Bulgaria and it was really just the two of us together the whole time. And Elsie was like, “people think I’m crazy that I just bring up Bulgaria all the time.” But it was so crazy. I bring it up all the time. It just feels like it’s a crazy time in my life that I was in Bulgaria for four months shooting a horror movie during a pandemic. It’s good to see them and kind of be like, “oh, so we have the same memories.”
What was it like being a part of such a popular horror franchise? Were you a fan of it before booking the role?
Oh noo. So I am scared of everything in the world! I don’t even watch shows that are serious before bed because then I’ll have nightmares. And I travel a lot by myself alone and like to go into nature a lot, so I don’t need things that scare me more than life itself. So when I got this role, I thought to myself “oh my God, how am I gonna live up to the original?” And the original directors had told me, “just watch the original, we’re just doing a call back to that.” So I watched that and I was terrified. I thought it was just iconic in every way but felt really intimidated to be a part of the franchise!
You’ve built up quite the resume so far. Is there a type of role you haven’t had a chance to play yet, but would like to?
Oh man, I joke that my favourite movies are Wet Hot American Summer and Girl Interrupted. And Anything like that I’d be excited for! I would love to do a really silly documentary – like a Christopher Guest type movie. That’s a dream. I’d love to play someone in an insane asylum or something. I just want to do a role that I think is either really, really funny that I connect with or really twisted. Or just something that I’m excited about that I can, again, like find a grain of myself in somewhere and get deeper into it.
What does the rest of 2023 look like for you?
Well, I’ve been going back and forth between New York and LA, but I’m in New York now for I think the foreseeable future and loving it. I really would love to get up to Vermont in a couple months because it’s beautiful there – it’s my favourite place in the world to do some hiking. I’m auditioning for stuff as well, so we’ll see what happens! And Nick Pugliese, Charlie in the show, and I in the process of writing a short! So we’ve been working on that and learning from the creators of our show!
School Spirits is out now on Paramount+.
Interview Rachel Martin
Photography Hadley Rosenbaum
