Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown in ‘Stranger Things’ Talk About Aging

Real life best friends and teammates on Stranger ThingsNoah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown now have an additional thread connecting them and their characters on the show: the digital de-aging process for flashback scenes with their characters Will Byers and Eleven, respectively.

In the first five minutes of Season 5, viewers see the face of an aged Schnapp on young actor Luke Kokotek, playing Season 1’s 11-year-old Will, trapped in the Upside Down and sheltering in Castle Byers with a rifle while humming The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.” Lola VFX is the effects studio that did the facial and hair placement for Kokotek’s transformation into a younger Will Byers.

This wasn’t the first time a character underwent this process that combines CGI and a younger body. Millie Bobby Brown undertook the same task for key scenes from her character Eleven’s past in season 4.

“I asked [Millie] for help, honestly. I said to myself, “How did you work with the child when you had to?” “It was fun to step into the director’s shoes that we don’t really get to do on the show,” Schnapp told Deadline. “And think introspectively and thoughtfully about the way I act and the way I acted and moved and breathed and turned and looked and kind of conveyed that to this little kid, who was so cute. It was a fun experience. It’s a bit digital. It’s hard to make it look perfect, but it turned out pretty well.

Brown, who was “excited” to see what it would look like for Schnapp, found the process “very interesting.” The actress shared Schnapp’s feeling about revisiting how she approached her character in Season 1.

RELATED: ‘Stranger Things 5’: The Duffer Brothers Reveal When They Started Connecting Will’s Disappearance to a ‘Sentient Being’ as Noah Schnapp Reacts to Opening Sequence

“I was able to direct it for a few episodes. It’s really interesting because [it] Taught me a lot about what I did. I was like, “Yeah, how did I do it, why did I do it?” All right ?’ ” Brown said. I was like, “Wow.” I just screamed and held out my hand, without any feeling of embarrassment. And it’s so interesting. 10 years ago, social networks did not exist. It wasn’t like that 1764053953 at all. I posted pictures of my dog ​​and had about 25 followers. It’s interesting, the feeling of humility that you really have to leave at the door.

Brown took Martie Blair, who stood in for young Eleven in intense scenes where viewers learned how Jamie Campbell Bower’s Henry became Vecna, under his wing, just as Schnapp did with his actor counterpart.

“I really worked with the little girl I worked with saying, ‘It’s OK. Just like, it’s okay. “We’re going to look stupid because we’re not moving anything with our minds, but let’s just harness that into a superhero that you have together,” Brown said. “And so I sat behind a wall and I screamed with her, I reached behind the camera so she felt like she was with me.”

RELATED: ‘Stranger Things’ Creators Matt and Ross Duffer Share Updates on Their ‘Quite Different’ Spinoff Idea, Moving From the ’80s and Working With Paramount