Glass Onion: Where You’ve Seen Whiskey Actor Madelyn Cline Before

For those that had the chance to see Rian Johnson’s sequel to Knives Out, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, over the Thanksgiving weekend, you were treated to a funny, twisty tale of murder featuring no less than a murderers’ row of talent. For everyone else, Glass Onion is the Netflix event of the holiday season, complete with a star-studded cast that features a returning Daniel Craig as Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc, as well as Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, and more. The film is a real actor’s showcase for some of Hollywood’s A-list talent, and holding her own amongst the group is Madelyn Cline as Dave Bautista’s hard-partying influencer girlfriend, Whiskey.

Not quite the household name that the other members of the cast are counted as, Cline delivers what appears to be a star-making performance in a role that showcases her comedic chops. Whiskey is the Twitch-managing assistant and girlfriend to Bautista’s men’s rights activist, Duke Cody. And Whiskey seems to be going along with Duke’s schtick in the hopes to leverage it into her own internet fame. She also has her own special relationship with Edward Norton’s Miles Bron, the billionaire at the center of Glass Onion’s story. To say more would be to spoil some of the fun and intrigue in Johnson’s knotty comedy-thriller.

It’s fitting that Cline’s breakout role is happening on Netflix, as it’s largely where her biggest career moments have happened thus far. In 2017, Cline appeared in the second season of Stranger Things as Hawkins High School student Tina, who takes an interest in new student Billy Hargrove and throws a Halloween Party in which several of the main characters attend. Given what happens to Billy in Stranger Things 3, perhaps it was for the best she never got too close…

Meanwhile, in 2020, Cline landed a starring role on Netflix’s teen drama Outer Banks as Sarah Cameron, a member of the wealthy “Kook” clan who enjoys mixing it up with lower class “Pogues.” The series has been renewed for a third season that is set to premiere sometime in 2023.

Prior to finding success on Netflix, Cline had a small role in the independent film Savannah Sunrise and appeared in the 2018 conversion therapy drama Boy Erased, which starred Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges. Cline played a girlfriend who couldn’t save Hedges’ character from his own vices. Cline also featured in episodes of the HBO series Vice Principals, starring Danny McBride and Walton Goggins, and The CW’s The Originals, which was a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries that lasted five seasons. In 2021, she appeared in the Blumhouse produced film This is the Night, which starred Frank Grillo. It was released digitally. 

After her role in Glass Onion, we’re sure Cline’s resume will begin to fill up. Given her relative lack of familiarity with audiences, the Whiskey character could be the breakout role that leads to more film and television work, as well as more attention in the press (ahem, as seen here). You can now watch Cline and the rest of the talented Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery cast on Netflix right now.