Sidney Flanigan wears [JIL SANDERS](https://www.jilsander.com/en-us/) top.
From a very young age, [Sidney Flanigan](https://www.instagram.com/sidney.flanigan/) was used to expressing herself in many ways. Growing up in Buffalo, New York, she spent a lot of her free time doing creative, performative things — singing, playing guitar, making cartoons — while hanging out with her friends in the neighborhood.
The up-and-coming starlet comes from a very humble, blue-collar background, working in fast food and living paycheck to paycheck day in, day out. Having been performing in the western New York area for several years now, she quickly became one of the faces of Buffalo’s indie music scene, known for her acoustic guitar-driven feminist anthems about relationships, inner turmoil and teenage angst.
Taking Sidney’s previous interest in the topic of feminism and teenage female empowerment, Eliza Hittman’s newest feature _Never Rarely Sometimes Always_ offered itself as a smooth transition from music to film. The young singer/actress made a strong move by starting off her acting career with a feature film after meeting Hittman initially through the director's partner Scott Cummings. “I had been dating a guy at the time who was crashing on the couch of this house where they filmed a lot of the stuff for _Buffalo Juggalos_, so I would just be there kind of on the fringes of this film that was being made,” Flanigan recalls. “There was like a backyard wedding at this house one day, and Eliza was visiting Scott there and noticed me, I guess.”
They used Facebook to stay in touch, where the couple eventually saw the videos of Sidney singing covers and playing guitar and were ultimately captivated by how authentic and candid she was about her experience as a teenager. So when _Never Rarely Sometimes Always_ started to shape up, they reached out.
Sidney Flanigan wears [SALVATORE FERRAGAMO](https://www.ferragamo.com/shop/us/en/women) dress and shoes.
Even though she was hesitant and almost reluctant to take on this role at the beginning, she slowly began to change her mind after reading the script and speaking with Eliza about the film. “At first, I was kind of like, ‘This is really out of the blue and I don't really remember these people,’ and I just thought it was something that I totally wasn't going to be capable of,” the young actress explains. “I spoke with Eliza when I read the script, and I was really drawn to how powerful of a story it was. And I talked to some friends who were all just like, ‘Yeah, but it's still performing. You're still a performative person, you can at least give it a shot!’”
And so she did. After auditioning and getting the role, she went through a two-day rehearsal process with her co-star Talia Ryder and had to start shooting right away. Flanigan used her experience as a musician to prepare for the role, drawing from what she went through as a woman and a teenager throughout life. “The older you get, the more there is to draw from,” she said. “I just tried my best to take my experience as a musician and apply that in the sense of trying to figure out what emotional headspace I needed to occupy, and figuring out where to put myself in order to deliver that kind of moment or whatever scene it was we were doing.”
Recounting the story of unintended pregnancy and a lack of local support, the film speaks directly to the current political moment and the issues of women's reproductive rights. Autumn, Sidney's character, is a 17-year-old teenager who lives in a central Pennsylvania town, works part-time as a cashier at a grocery store and seems to have a difficult (perhaps abusive) relationship with her father. And that's where Flanigan came across one of the first challenges in her acting career:
"There were times where I wasn't so used to working the really long hours and to putting myself in this character who is, obviously, extremely distressed all the time. To be putting myself in that place all day long is really mentally exhausting."
But Flanigan persisted, seeing this as an opportunity to finally take a stand on the issue and be useful, hoping to make a difference in the community at large. Now that she's an up-and-coming actress with such a great and meaningful experience in her back pocket, Sidney hopes to keep involving herself in projects that uncover and dive deep into the topical issues in the present-day society that we live in. "I'm hoping to keep doing projects of importance," she said. "That is important to me — that I maintain doing things that stick to my core beliefs."
The young starlet plans to keep herself busy with music projects in the foreseeable future, while also auditioning for roles and navigating her experience as an actress. She really is, as one might say, a person of many talents — an artist, a musician, an entertainer, a performer. And a true creative.
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Photographed by: [Brian Boulos.](https://www.instagram.com/brianboulos/)
Styled By [Noah Rosa Diaz.](https://www.instagram.com/noahrosadiaz/?hl=en)
Hair: [Riad Azar](https://www.instagram.com/riadazar9/) using [R+CO](https://www.randco.com) at [Art Department](https://www.art-dept.com).
Makeup: [Victor Noble](https://www.instagram.com/victornoblepr/?hl=en) using [Pat McGrath Labs](https://www.patmcgrath.com/pages/pat-mcgrath-biography) at [The Visionaries Agency](https://www.thevisionariesagency.com).
Location: [Mondrian Park Ave](https://www.morganshotelgroup.com/mondrian/mondrian-park-avenue).
