Sidney Flanigan tells Playboy why nothing has been typical about her path to starring in the abortion drama 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'
Most Hollywood stars are loath to lose their sheen of perfection, but this particular point in time is changing all that.
Bold-faced names are, as it turns out, capable of catching contagious diseases; they’re staying inside, and they’re scared and bored and adrift. Sure, they express this by sharing videos of themselves sitting in their hot tubs or playing with their pet donkeys. But what’s more human than wanting to bolster your public presence with your best selfie self?
It’s refreshing to meet Sidney Flanigan, who stars in a new film but is still someone you might stand next to in line at a depleted grocery store. This has been quite a moment for the 21-year-old Buffalo, New York native who, through a series of unlikely circumstances, marks her acting debut with Never Rarely Sometimes Always from acclaimed director Eliza Hittman.
It’s hard if we just see the topic of abortion as this argument, when it’s really dealing with so many individual stories.
The film focuses on Autumn, a high school student played by Flanigan who travels with her cousin from rural Pennsylvania to Manhattan for an abortion. The drama debuted at Sundance earlier this year and nabbed a Special Jury Award for Neo-Realism; a month later it picked up the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Flanigan met Hittman at the age of 14 when Flanigan’s then-boyfriend was crashing at a “Juggalo house,” a communal residence for fans of the horror-rap group Insane Clown Posse. As luck would have it, Hittman’s partner, Scott Cummings, was filming a documentary called Buffalo Juggalos and connected with Flanigan during a backyard wedding at the home.
In the ensuing years, Hittman and Cummings kept in touch with Flanigan, a budding musician who would post videos of herself singing and playing guitar. Eventually Hittman realized Flanigan was the perfect fit for her film and asked her to undergo an unconventional audition. This involved Hittman filming Flanigan acting out various moments throughout the city and then reading lines in the director’s office to make the process as relaxed as possible.
Even before the festival fanfare, Focus Features had picked up the film for distribution and made plans to release it on March 13. As it happened, this was the final weekend most movie theaters were open before stay-at-home orders kicked in, and so the film had a muted release followed by an early streaming launch in April. The movie-star coronation of Flanigan, who recently signed with the Gersh Agency, hasn’t been quite what it could have.
Of course, the movie-release calendar is hardly the only aspect of the entertainment world impacted by COVID-19. Flanigan had been working as a janitor at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center and continued even after the film premiered. As it has for everyone working in events spaces, the pandemic makes future paychecks uncertain.
“I technically still have the job, but we’re laid off now due to the virus,” Flanigan tells Playboy. “Obviously, if I don’t have another role by the time all this has stopped, I’ll probably still be there until I get another role. It’s all up in the air.”
When we spoke for the first time, prior to the film’s release, Flanigan explained that she’s living a “double life.” She grew up in a blue-collar family, and college never felt like the right fit. To make ends meet, she took various jobs including working in fast food while continuing to write and perform music.
“People at work ask me, ‘Sid, what are you still doing here? You’re rich and famous now.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m not,’” she says. “People think you did one movie so that means you’re set for life. But it’s not like the money lasts forever. I’ll be doing this movie-promotional stuff for a week, and then I’ll go home and mop a bunch of floors.”
Nothing about her path has gone exactly according to plan, so perhaps it’s fitting that the film’s release involved some twists. “It has been a bit disappointing,” she says of the truncated theatrical run. This comes at a time when debate rages in the film-distribution community: Should more titles bypass theaters and go straight to VOD post-quarantine? “The film not having the theatrical release it deserved—that’s all kind of a bummer. But at the same time, it’s out of my control, and I’m just trying to remain optimistic,” she says.
I’ll be doing this movie-promotional stuff for a week, and then I’ll go home and mop a bunch of floors.
There are, of course, far worse ways to start your acting career than with a film that currently holds a sterling 99 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This particular role is an appropriate start for Flanigan, who frequently shares her progressive politics on social media and calls herself a “hardcore” Bernie Sanders supporter heading into her first presidential election as a voter.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always, currently available for $9.99 on all on-demand platforms, is an important contribution to the conversation surrounding reproductive rights: The character’s decision to have an abortion isn’t associated with negativity or regret; it doesn’t ruin lives or relationships. Although the film includes emotional scenes that hint at abuse, it never reveals the identity of the father or the circumstances of the pregnancy, suggesting a woman’s decision to have an abortion shouldn’t be contingent on how she got pregnant. Despite the difficult path the characters take, the film is ultimately a hopeful one—provided such resources are available to anyone who wants the procedure.
“It’s definitely frightening,” Flanigan says of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to hear June Medical Services v. Russo, a case that could severely weaken abortion access. “I hope that women can see the film and feel validated and less alone. And I hope men can get a little perspective of what it might be like to be in a woman’s shoes. It’s hard if we just see the topic as this argument, when it’s really dealing with so many individual stories. This movie has a powerful impact in that sense.”
Flanigan represents a new kind of movie star in a variety of ways. She identifies as a nonbinary woman, which she describes as “not necessarily uncomfortable with your assigned gender at birth, but you don’t feel it completely defines you. It’s just rejecting the idea of being constrained to this one idea of gender.”
For the time being, the performer is balancing music and acting and has started to learn what typical Hollywood auditions are like. As to whether she feels like a celebrity, Flanigan isn’t sure. “I guess I do, especially when strangers follow me on social media now,” she says. “To them, all of a sudden I’m this movie star, but I still feel essentially the same. I still wake up and shower and brush my teeth like a normal person. I’m just lucky to get to do stuff I like to do on a larger platform now.”