Caleb McLaughlin, Saniyya Sidney, and Suzanna Son on awkward auditions and breaking big

EW gathered some of this year's hottest rising stars for a wide-ranging conversation at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival about breaking into the industry, awkward auditions, and what's next.

As one of the festival's media partners, EW honored Caleb McLaughlin (Concrete Cowboy, Stranger Things), Saniyya Sidney (King Richard), and Suzanna Son (Red Rocket) during its Breaking Big Panel and Awards on Oct. 29. The three young actors opened up about their paths and offered advice for the SCAD students in the audience.

Sidney kicked off the conversation by sharing how she first auditioned for the tennis drama King Richard, which follows dad Richard Williams (played by Will Smith) as he coaches his young daughters Venus and Serena and helps shepherd them to tennis stardom. The now 15-year-old Sidney plays Venus, and she told the audience she relished the challenge of playing someone as iconic as the tennis star.

"It was definitely something that I was up for," Sidney said. "I was really excited to learn more of who she was as a person, not just as the champion that she is. But it was very interesting when I got to talk to her family and got to learn how she was from a young age to the young woman she becomes in the movie to now. That childlike energy that she has about her — that she still has to this day — I can definitely relate to. There were so many similarities between us, which I thought was so cool."

For Son, joining the cast of Sean Baker's Red Rocket was even more of a leap: The actress told the audience how Baker spotted her at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood and invited her to audition — making this her first film role ever. "He explained it in a bit of a different way," Son recalled with a laugh. "He was like, 'Do you want to work on this really small guerilla film? It's nothing.' And then we premiered at Cannes. I really didn't expect it to be so big!"

As for McLaughlin, who stars opposite Idris Elba in Concrete Cowboy, landing his first major film role presented the opportunity to flex some new creative muscles: After appearing in three seasons of Stranger Things, McLaughlin stars in the film as a young man who finds himself drawn into Philadelphia's real-life culture of Black cowboys.

"Reading my character's storyline and how complex and how much stuff that he goes through in the script, I knew this was something I wanted to do," McLaughlin explained. "I wanted to test my limits, I wanted people to see me in a different light, and I wanted to see myself in a different light."

Watch the full panel above.

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