After ‘Stranger Things,’ Vecna ​​Actor Jamie Campbell Bower Eyes One of the Biggest Sci-Fi Franchises of All Time

From the moment Henry Creel appeared as the human origin of Vecna, Jamie Campbell Bower had the responsibility of transporting some of the most psychologically complex and dense documents into Stranger Things. Across multiple timelines, identities, and performances, including a resurrection, Bower’s work as Henry grounds the show’s mythology in something human, culminating in making him one of the most pivotal figures of the final season.

In a recent conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub in advance Stranger Things 5 Volume 2, Bower discussed the final episodes of Season 5, revealed which franchise he wants to add to his resume next, and reflected on how developing Vecna’s voice and learning Henry Creel’s backstory shaped his approach to the character. He also talked about the pressure of portraying multiple iterations of Henry in the final season and the sense of responsibility that comes with inhabiting such a central character in the world. Duffer Brothers created.

Browse franchises and dream of “Jurassic Park”

“Would I insist on being eaten?”

COLLIDER: I have to start with the most important question. You were in Duskyou were in Harry Potteryou have been in Stranger Things and now you’re going to be in Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. What franchise are you looking for next?

ARBOR: Jurassic Park. I would love to be in it Jurassic Park. I mean, I always loved those movies growing up, and it’s funny. I think I watched one of the new ones a while ago when it first came out, but I’ve been watching more recently. They’re amazing, they’re so much fun. Yeah, and there is such a nostalgic atmosphere in these first three films for me as a child too.

The original Jurassic Park is incredible. I absolutely have to know, if you entered Jurassic ParkWould you insist on getting eaten by a dinosaur?

BOWER: I feel like I’m in Jurassic Parkthose who get eaten by dinosaurs are the bad guys. You know, there’s this great shot where the man gets eaten in the toilet, in one of those early films. Would I insist on being eaten? Maybe, maybe. Yeah, no, no, no, no, actually, no.

So you want, I understand. So where will you watch the series finale? Stranger Things?

BOWER: I’m going to watch it with my friends tomorrow.

Oh, you all see him tomorrow.

BOWER: I couldn’t say.

They won’t show it to anyone, at least to journalists and the public until New Year’s Eve, until it goes live.

Developing Vecna’s Iconic Voice for ‘Stranger Things’

“I felt like I had a duty of care.”

But one of the things that blew me away was that I saw you recently on TV doing Vecna’s voice, and I really didn’t know you could do that with your vocal cords. So when you were hired by the Duffers, did they know you had this ability? Or did they hire you for your acting and then it’s like a bonus, “Oh, I can do the voice too”?

BOWER: I have a vague memory of going up to them in the writer’s room or the house they had in Los Angeles before they were fully cast in Season 4 and saying, “We love your voice, we really love your voice.” And I was like, “Okay, cool, that’s nice.” So I don’t know, you’d have to ask them specifically if they just believed I could. But it was definitely a process. I have emails I would send them of me doing the voice in different environments with different music underneath once I had sort of gotten to a space that I felt really comfortable with.

So I don’t know if they cast me purely for something, but it’s definitely something that, when I approached the character, I was like, “No, I really, really want to work on this. This is something that I really want to bring to the table here,” because I just felt like, I don’t know, I felt like I had a duty of care, I guess.

I’m sure they cast you for you and the voice was like a bonus just because how were they to know you could do this again with a voice before you were cast?

BOWER: Yeah, it’s possible, it’s possible.

Learn the story of Henry Creel through “The First Shadow”

“It was really helpful to have seen that and experienced that.”

Image via Manuel Harlan

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a piece that I didn’t realize how connected it was to the final season. Knowing so much about Henry’s story, when were you first told about the story and the story, when you finally learned all of this, did that have an impact on your portrayal of the character?

BOWER: I saw the play twice between filming Seasons 4 and 5. And then, as we progressed into Season 5, we got our scripts and our sort of drips and drips. And there was obviously the cave moment in episode 3, I think, or 4, of the season, where he was standing outside and Max, and he was terrified and whatever. And I think for me, after seeing the play, there were definitely story beats that I took with me into those particular moments of how it felt and the impact and everything that had been taken away from Henry.even with this simplicity. Well, not that simplicity, but even in his relationship with Patty Newby, it was something he held dear, and an experience led him to take it away from her. It was another moment where love and hope were taken away from him. So, you know, it was really helpful to have seen that and experienced that.

So what did I know… I understood it and asked questions as we went along and drew lines between the things I knew were our heart moments and the things I did. and then making sure I was on the right track by being able to ask Matt and Ross [Duffer]like: “Am I right to think that? »

Wearing multiple versions of the character in the final season

“I always felt like I had a great duty of care to this story, to this universe, to this world that Matt and Ross created.”

Image via Netflix

One of the things about this final season is that you’re all over the place in terms of different characters. And how did you feel as an actor seeing how much responsibility your characters, if you will, had in the final season and how much you weren’t going to wear makeup? You deliver a very good performance this year in several roles. I’m just curious about the pressure of doing it.

BOWER: Thank you very much. That’s very kind of you. I mean, the prospect of playing Mr. Whatsit seemed pretty scary to me, not so much from pressure from outside sources, but just from making sure that I could do it, that I could push it forward, that I could use my skills and my brain in a way that felt, I guess, conducive to the story, because it’s almost a kind of new iteration.. It’s a presentation, like I said before, and it’s really scary once you’ve built a character, “Great, you built that one and you built Vecna. Now here’s a new one to build in the same universe.”

And you’re like, “Okay,” and you’re like, “So how can I take things from one character and put them somewhere else to make sure that there’s some sort of cohesion between them all?” And that was the hardest thing. And it wasn’t so much that I felt like it was because I was all over it. I always felt like I had this great duty of care to this story, to this universe, to this world that Matt and Ross created. This, yes, people love and know, but mainly because Matt and Ross Duffer hand-built this with their hearts and minds. And I want to do justice to this justice. I want to move forward and give them what they deserve.

Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 is now streaming on Netflix. The hit series also stars Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbor (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Matarazzo Gate (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Dear Good (Karen Wheeler), Amybeth McNulty (Vickie), Nell Fisher (Holly Wheeler), Jake Connelly (Derek Turnbow), Alex Breaux (Lieutenant Akers), and Linda Hamilton (Dr. Kay).

Release date

2016 – 00/00/2025

Network

Netflix

Directors

Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Antal Nimród, Uta Briesewitz

Writers

Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock