BEYOND BARB
‘Stranger Things’ fan favorite Shannon Purser is back on screen, this time as the lovelorn lead of a teen rom-com
IT’S not that Shannon Purser minds when fans on the street call her Barb, the name of her “Stranger Things” character. It’s just that, well, maybe it’s time to move on.
“I don’t know if it’s getting better or worse, to be honest,” she tells The Post. “I mean, I’m hoping that after this movie comes out, at least they’ll be able to call me Sierra instead.”
That movie is “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser,” and it shifts Purser from meme to leading lady. The 21-year-old stars as the titular character in the new teen rom-com, which begins streaming Friday on Netflix. In the film — a retelling of the classic play “Cyrano de Bergerac” — Sierra is a band geek who catfishes a hunky guy (Noah Centineo) with the unlikely help of a popular girl (Kristine Froseth).
Burgess has always dreamed of a role like this one.
“It just seemed so glamorous to fall in love with some handsome man in a movie,” she says, with a laugh. “I don’t know if I ever expected it to really happen just because I haven’t seen a lot of rom-coms with girls who look like me before. I’m very grateful to be able to change that and to sort of help redefine what beauty is and who deserves to have their story told.”
Born and raised in Atlanta, Purser landed her first on-screen acting job while in high school, playing the small, ill-fated role of Barb on Netflix’s instant hit, “Stranger Things.” The bespectacled misfit was killed off in the first season, but social-media users latched onto the part, demanding #JusticeForBarb. When the series debuted in July 2016, Purser was still working at an Atlanta area cinema, selling concessions, collecting tickets and cleaning theaters.
“I wasn’t getting bombarded,” she says of fans approaching her while she was on the clock. “But I do remember, like, one couple waited for me by my car when my shift was over — and that was weird.”
Luckily, Barb’s virality served as a launchpad for Purser’s acting career. She appeared on the NBC show “Rise” before it was canceled after its first season this past spring, but her work on the CW’s buzzy series “Riverdale” continues this fall.
All the while, Purser has used her online popularity to speak openly about topical issues for young people, including her own struggles with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“I’ve been dealing with my mental illnesses since I was . . . maybe 10 or 11,” she says. “And as somebody who loved celebrity culture and actors, I think having somebody that I really admired speak up about those issues would have made a really big difference.
“As much as I love acting,” she says, “I also feel that I have kind of a responsibility to . . . help people. If I have this platform, I want to use it for something good.”