Putting the world to rights

SOMETIMES described as an addictive homage to Spielberg’s “Stand By Me” and “ET” and to the cult television series of the 1980s, Netflix’s sci-fi series “Stranger Things” kicks off its second season next week to great anticipation. Indeed audience expectations are so high that the streaming service recently flew journalists from all over the world to London to chat with two of its young stars.
And so on a chilly afternoon last week, that intrepid group of reporters sat around in a five-star hotel in central London waiting for Millie Bobby Brow and Noah Schnapp.

 

It’s been a hectic few days for the two 13 year-olds who have been travelling around to promote and talk about the hit series, which premiered last year.
Part horror and part fantasy, the series is set in the small Indiana town of Hawkins in the 1980s. The story starts when a young boy Will Byers (Schnapp) mysteriously disappears from the town setting off a series of monstrous events. While everyone is searching for him, a mysterious girl with a shaved head, who later becomes known as Eleven, arrives in their midst. She turns out to be telekinetic and has escaped from a laboratory where secret experiments are being carried out.
Unbeknown to Will’s mother Joyce (Wynona Ryder) and police chief Jim Hopper, Will’s gang of friends, Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin, try and find him while also helping Eleven. Smart and nerdy, the boys soon discover the Upside Down World, which looks similar to the world we live in but is poisonous and dark.

 

Directed by the Duffer twins Matt and Ross and full of references to the pop culture of 35 years ago, the series has propelled Brown to instant stardom. She plays Eleven with a maturity that goes far beyond her age, which won her a nomination for the Emmy Awards’ Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series as well as the best hero prize from the MTV Movie & TV Awards. The cast was also recognised by the Screen Actors Guild Awards in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category. No stranger to the screen, Brown has appeared in e “Grey’s Anatomy”, “NCIS” and “Modern Family”.
While Schnapp is the key character and drives the first season, which ends with him throwing up then washing away a young monster-like creature, he actually has less screen time than his pals. Schnapp too has screen experience having played Tom Hanks’ son in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” and voiced Charlie Brown in the “The Peanuts Movie”. From the delicate little boy in the first season, Schnapp has moved into adolescence and while his voice is deeper, viewers will have no problem identifying him as Will.

 

Despite having millions of followers on their Twitter accounts, the two insist they are grounded.
“I think we still live the same life, just our lives right now are a lot busier,” says Schnapp before trailing off to let Brown finish. “We have each other to help. Obviously we enjoy being famous and it means we get to do really fun things that many kids of our age don’t have the opportunity to do. So while we have a ton of fans, we also have each other. We know what the other is going through and so we are like best friends. Not only do we connect, we also finish each other’s sentences,” she says.
“We don’t deal with the fame. I mean we don’t even think of it much, I can’t really speak for Noah but I would say none of us even think about it. We act and we have a couple million followers, which is pretty huge. We are so grateful for the fans and the followers but that’s not what we work for. We work because we love it. It’s just being on camera and reading our scripts and becoming our characters. That’s so important to us and fame is just something that comes with it.

 

The directors took time to help the youngsters with the references to the ‘80s by letting them watch the shows and films on which they draw.
“A lot of the series is based on those references so the movie and television stuff is kind of like our homework. When we were filming, we didn’t stop and think ‘oh, right, this is The Goonies’. We just walk, we look at our scenes, we say our words, we cry, we react and then the director shouts ‘cut!’ and we go home,” says Brown.
The second season is set in 1984, about a year after the first season leaves off. Will is having mysterious flashbacks to Upside Down and he’s having some difficulty separating them from reality. Will’s mother has started dating an old high school classmate (Sean Astin, who starred in “The Goonies”) and even Eleven seems to find a way out from the Upside Down.

 

Schnapp says that his character is very different from the boy in the first season. “It’s emotional, it’s a lot more exciting but it’s still has everything from the first season.
Will is going through a lot more stress. I know he had a lot of stress last season too but that was another dimension. Now he’s struggling with the aftermath and that has changed him mentally.”
Eleven, says Brown, has changed too. “She’s very hormonal and very feisty. Eleven was always feisty but vulnerable too, crying all the time. Now she’s grown up. And there’s this love triangle too. It’s fun to compare ourselves to the way we were last season.”
A teen romance seemed likely in the first season when Mike kissed Eleven before she’s dragged back into the Upside Down in order to protect her friends from the monster.
The success of “Stranger Things”, says Schnapp, is not just down to nostalgia for the ’80s retro nor even the cast. “I don’t think there is just one reason. I think it’s because everyone can relate to the characters on the show and connect to them in their own personal way. Also because the chemistry between all the characters is very sweet,” he explains.
Asked to name their role model in acting, Schnapp doesn’t hesitate to name his screen dad in “Bridge of Spies”, – Tom Hanks.
“I still really look up to him. I really aspire to be like him because he’s such a nice guy and an amazing actor.
For her part, Brown loves two actresses, both of whom internationally hailed for their acting talents.
“I like Meryl Streep and Jodie Foster because they are the kind of women who have slipped effortlessly into directing, which is something I also think about. I also really admire Hailee Steinfeld. She sings, she acts and she’s a genuinely lovely person,” she says.

BACK UPSIDE DOWN

- “Stranger Things” season 2 starts streaming on Netflix next Friday.