‘It felt surreal, weird’

A still from Stranger Things

Stranger Things actors Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo vividly remember the moment when the show turned their lives "upside down" by making them overnight stars.

Stranger Things, created by Matt and Ross Duffer, is set in the 1980s and takes a look at the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, where a secret government lab accidentally opens a door to a parallel dimension referred to as the ‘upside down'.

A group of friends try to make sense of the strange disappearances and the evil things haunting their town while also struggling to hide a new and mysterious friend. The fourth season of the show is currently streaming on Netflix.

Brown, who became a global star courtesy her role of Eleven, a girl with psychokinetic and telepathic abilities, still remembers waking up to see her "tennis ball-shaped" face everywhere after the first season. "I think the moment I knew the show had taken off was when I woke up from a nap in my car and looked at my phone and my tennis ball-shaped face was everywhere. I was like, ‘Oh, this is really it'. I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is legit, people love this'," Brown told in an interview during a virtual set visit of the show.

But the most surreal moment for her was during the premiere of season two when people were chanting her and co-star Wolfhard's name. "I was like ‘this moment will last forever'. The show has immortalised itself. I feel it's gonna last forever. I am so grateful that I got to be a part of that. I do remember that season two premiere was surreal for me," she added. The 18-year-old actor, who was just 12 when she starred on the first season of the show in 2016, has since gone on to play major roles in Hollywood films Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), its sequel and Netflix period mystery drama Enola Holmes (2020) that she also produced.

Wolfhard, 19, had a similar trajectory and has featured in horror film It (2017) and its sequel, The Goldfinch and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). He described the experience of working on the show like being part of a camp . "We kind of grew up with the characters because we come back every year. It's an interesting thing and something like a camp. Like the way I'm coming back every year and seeing the same people and seeing what everyone has been up to in real life and on the show," Wolfhard said.

The actor said the show's success has "changed and impacted our lives completely and for the better." "Millie and I are just happy to be back every season," he added. The actor hopes Stranger Things, which is currently in its fourth chapter, would "go on for more seasons". The fourth season is already streaming on Netflix, the second half of the series will arrive on July 1.

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