‘STRANGER THINGS’ STAR TALKS ABOUT ACTING, FAME IN MYSTIC
A day before sitting down with The Day, “Stranger Things” star Gaten Matarazzo was in Mystic visiting family. He had been having a normal enough time, making all the “necessary” stops at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream and Mystical Toys.
But it wasn’t until he was strolling through Olde Mistick Village that his fame caught up with him.
“It’s Dustin from ‘Stranger Things!’” a man yelled before running over to snap a selfie next to the 15-year-old star — sparking a fan-free-for-all.
“The crowd just grew so big that we had to escape,” Gaten says, recounting the experience that began in front of and weaved through the Grey Goose Cookery before ending in Franklin’s General Store. There, he found himself cornered in the shop’s narrow walkways by a crowd of hysterical fans.
“It was one of the more overwhelming experiences I’ve had so far,” he says.
Warning: This contains spoilers
In the show, one of the most menacing forces featured are creatures called Demodogs. Early on, Dustin discovers what he thinks is a slug (in fact, it is a baby Demodog), and innocently adopts it as a pet, naming it Dart. On where the idea of Dart came from:
Heather: When they wrapped the first season, the Duffer brothers took the kids aside to ask if they had any special requests for Season 2. Gaten: I said, “I want Dustin to have a dog.” And they’re like “A dog?” And I was like “Yeah, I want him to have a slobbery English Bulldog. An English Bulldog would be Dustin’s dog.” Heather: Well, he did end up with a pet …
On acting out the heart-to-heart scene with Joe Keery (Steve) on the train tracks:
Gaten: That is my favorite scene of all time. Of course it is just like “Stand By Me.” I remember that it was just a good day. It was a really good day. Our biggest concern was how they would put it together. They captured such a beautiful image and a sweet little moment. (Both Dustin and Steve) had been through so much in the past two hours alone. In that moment, they can just forget about it, even though they are dropping bait on the ground to get an interdimensional monster to come, so that they can kill it. That’s gotta be weird. So the fact that they were able to just talk, I think they were comforting each other. It’s the fact that people have been through conversations like that before. Maybe it was with an older brother, or with your dad, or an older friend at school. People have had actual conversations like that. And I think that spoke to a lot of people. And their conversation wasn’t just about girls. It was about the fact that a character like Steve can get out of maintaining his reputation. You just don’t expect it. I will go back and watch that scene over and over again. I love it.
About director Shawn Levy setting up the mood of a scene:
Gaten: Shawn Levy was very good at making sure that we were in the moment and in character. And he would play music in the background to help set the mood of a scene. When Dustin discovers Dart eating his cat, Shawn played suspenseful scary music in the background so I could get into the feeling. I think he might have played the “Jaws” theme. In the scene where Dustin encounters Dart in the cave, he played the “Star Wars Dune Sea of Tatooine” song, which I think he did purposely because he knows I love “Star Wars” so much.
On Dustin’s signature sound effect “Grrrrr”:
Gaten: I’ve been doing the grrr forever. There is a guy on Vine who always does this in his videos. He is hilarious. I thought it was something everyone could do. But no, not everyone can. So I started doing it as much as possible. I would do it on set and Caleb was like “Gaten you should do it.” So they had scripted Dustin talking about his “pearls” and I thought maybe I would add it there. Caleb was like “Dude, do the grrr.” I asked, and they said I could try it. And Caleb was totally geeking out when I did. Then everyone was like “That was genius.” And I started being able to do it more powerfully. I think it even has helped make my singing better. Grrrrrrr.