Hail to the Chief
David harbour, aka Chief hopper, on fatherhood, mayors and why season three may or may not be inspired by Fletch…
at the end of season two, hopper officially adopted eleven. how’s he dealing with being a dad?
Not well! She’s discovering boys and that’s just awful for Hopper – I think it’s more terrifying to him than any interdimensional monster, in a sense. He has to let his little girl off the leash a little bit and let her discover herself, but I think Hopper’s kind of a controlling guy and he doesn’t like that at all. While it’s a very big theme to get into, there’s also a lot of fun to be had with this guy who’s really a throwback to the ’60s and ’70s and just completely inadequate in that department, having to deal with a girl becoming a woman.
there’s still a lot we don’t know about hopper’s past, particularly the daughter he lost, and his experiences in Vietnam or as a cop in new York. Does season three delve deeper into that?
Yes and no. We have a story to tell this season but we also have a larger palette now because the show’s been successful. I know that the Duffers are anticipating at least four seasons but I’d say it’s going to be five, so theoretically we have two more to go. In this season we do peel the onion back on Hopper but it’s not so specifically about his history. It’s more about who he is as a man, and we start to see different aspects of that. There are a lot of secrets. I don’t know if you’ll get those immediately, though – it may take a little more time.
Will hopper’s relationship with Joyce Byers evolve?
I love them! I think they’re lost people, like Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown or something, and this is our version of that. I think they could help each other and I think there is a love there that manifests in annoyance. The biggest connection they have now is that Hopper is now a single father and Joyce is a single mother, so there’s a connection there. If you’re a fan of Joyce and Hopper and that interaction, I think we have listened to you, and you’re going to be extremely satisfied. I know I was extremely satisfied.
how does he get on with the new mayor, played by Cary elwes?
Hopper has his own code of ethics. Even though he loves this town dearly, I don’t know that he likes bureaucracy very much. I certainly know that he has problems with authority in general, so any relationship with a mayor is going to be fraught with those things. There’s a bit of a contentious relationship there, but Cary’s part this season is really interesting. He’s such a good actor who brings so much life to this guy. He just has so much charisma and there’s an odd charm that he gives to this guy, so it’s a really fun character. I don’t know if you’ll like Mayor Kline but you’ll certainly be very interested in him.
You’re one of the few members of the cast old enough to remember the ’80s. Does being on set bring back memories?
A little bit, yeah. There’s always these little props throughout the set where I’m like, “That was my childhood!” My mum always had a kitchen phone with a really long cord like Joyce does. I guess for this season the big thing is the mall – I grew up in this suburban town as well, and I remember that that was just the big thing. There were karaoke booths where you would record songs on cassette, or you would get like an ice cream sundae and hang out and just talk about girls. Seeing the mall in this season, and all that flavour, really brought me back.
You’ve compared this season with Fletch. Can you elaborate on that?
Look, here’s the thing. I do so many of these interviews, and I don’t want to tell anybody anything, but people are always looking for answers to things. We had just shot a particular scene, which you will see in the show, and it just sort of popped into my mind. Everybody’s made fun of me since, and the Duffers were like, “You’re crazy, what are you talking about?” But for me there’s an element of Fletch this season in the sense that it has a little bit of that fun ’80s feel that we haven’t really explored before. Fletch came out in ’85 and was about a guy trying to solve a crime and dress up in different disguises, and this just reminds me of that. But mainly all of these comments are mainly born from the fact of my own annoyance at not being able to answer any questions, so I just say weird stuff!
This season we peel the onion back on Hopper and start to see different aspects of him. There are a lot of secrets