Winona Ryder has shared the advice she gave the kids on the set of Stranger Things.
The actor has been in the series since it first launched on Netflix in 2016, and plays Joyce Byers – a mother who struggles to save her son, Will, from the nether-world that is known as ‘Upside Down’.
The fifth and final season of the hit show is set to arrive on the streaming platform in autumn.
Speaking to Elle in a new interview, Ryder shared what it was like to sign up for the role, and how working with a young cast helped her put some things into perspective for the younger actors.
“I was the oldest person on the set. I started [my career] as the youngest, and I always wanted to be older,” she told the outlet, referring to how she got her first Oscar nod at the age of 22 for The Age of Innocence, and her second for Little Women, a year later.
Her time breaking into the spotlight early, she shared, allowed her to offer some words of wisdom to Millie Bobby Brown and the rest of the young cast. She recalled telling them: “This doesn’t happen. This is weird – the phenomenon. The work is the gift. That is why you’re doing it.”
“[That] was what was instilled in me. And I think I was successful with some of them,” she added. “I’ve been trying to sort of change this narrative with the kids, because they have it drilled into them that they’re so lucky and, you know, that this show ‘made’ them.
“I’m like, ‘No. Netflix is so lucky. You guys are the special ones. Like, you guys are magic.’”
Little is known about what the writers have in store for the final season of Stranger Things, although one of the co-creators has dismissed rumours that each episode of the upcoming chapter will be movie-length.
After an image claiming that each of the final episodes would last between two and three hours went viral, Ross Duffer took to Instagram to write: “lol not even close to accurate”.
Initially, the hit series began with episodes that ran just under an hour; however, by season four, each episode ranged between an hour and 20 minutes and two hours.
The official synopsis reads: “The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished – his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding.
“As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming – and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone – the full party – standing together, one last time.”
Earlier this year, Duffer promised an “emotional, thrilling” season, saying: “The goal is to hit hard”. Afterwards, cast member Caleb McLoughlin talked about how he felt finishing the series: “I was like, ‘I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry,’ and then ended up just bawling, man.“
