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moonlitdark · 2 days ago

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Jamie Campbell Bower, left, and Louis McCartney on opening night of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” on Broadway. (Jenny Anderson/Netflix)

By Thomas Floyd

Jamie Campbell Bower was smoking outside London’s Phoenix Theatre in late 2023, during intermission of the stage play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” when director Stephen Daldry spotted the English actor and made an unconventional ask: Could Bower — who was there as a uniquely invested theatergoer — step onstage during the curtain call and take a bow?

He reluctantly agreed. Yes, Bower originated the role of Vecna, the tentacled big bad introduced in Season 4 of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” And yes, the 1959-set “First Shadow” tells the origin story of Henry Creel, the telekinesis-powered teen who becomes that murderous villain. But it was newcomer Louis McCartney who portrayed Henry in the play.

“I felt like such a jackass,” Bower, 36, recalls with a laugh. “I was trying to absorb the second act, all the time thinking: ‘I’ve got to go stand up there and take a bow for not really doing anything. This is insane.’”

It’s safe to say that McCartney, the Northern Irish actor now reprising the role on Broadway, disagreed.

“Everything I got from it was from you,” says McCartney, 21, during a recent video chat alongside Bower. “I don’t fangirl, but I do fangirl about you sometimes. Just taking a bow with you was something else.”

This month, McCartney earned a Tony nomination for his wrenching portrayal of the boy who becomes Vecna. To those who have seen “The First Shadow,” the nod was unsurprising: Although the play features younger versions of myriad fan-favorite “Stranger Things” characters (Joyce, Hopper and Dr. Brenner, to name a few), Henry’s tragic tale takes center stage as “The First Shadow” explores his fraught relationship with his parents, his outsider experience at Hawkins High and the haunting powers that seeded his sadistic ambitions. Contorting his body, voice and mind, McCartney loses himself eight times a week in Henry’s debilitating descent.

One person who can relate: Bower, who returns as Henry/Vecna in the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” set to hit Netflix later this year. As Bower called in from Wales and McCartney spoke from New York, the actors opened up about their medium-transcending brotherhood, the toll of entering Vecna’s mind and how “The First Shadow” sets the stage for the “Stranger Things” endgame.

McCartney stars alongside T.R. Knight and Rosie Benton in “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.” (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

(This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)

Louis, how much did you try to channel Jamie’s performance versus making Henry your own?

McCartney: I didn’t want to be an imitation. When you take a job, it’s your role and you put yourself into it and you’ve got to bring personality and life and energy, or else it doesn’t work. But Jamie, I watched your scene with Millie [Bobby Brown] in the Rainbow Room where you explain your backstory, like, 30, 40 times — and you just nail that. You take such control. You’re so interesting to watch. You mean so much with your intent. Your words are weighted and they have a certain gravitas to them, but then you’re able to translate that perfectly into your eyes. That scene was the main influence for me.

Bower: Going and watching [the play] and watching you do it in this most beautiful way and seeing you bring yourself to it — as well as being able to say, “Oh my God, he’s watched the show and he’s bringing in other physical aspects [of my performance]” — it was so moving and so powerful and so beautiful. I just felt so proud of you, and I know that sounds really strange and kind of up my ass. But there was just this real sense of pride and love.

How do you think the play informs our understanding of Henry?

Bower: The relationship with anyone’s parental figure is so paramount to their character and who they end up becoming. We briefly touched on that [in Season 4], but to watch Louis do it with such sincerity and honesty, I took so many notes as I was watching it because I knew I was going into Season 5.

McCartney: When we’re translating the TV show to a play format, we run the risk of it being gimmicky, having a Demogorgon onstage and effects 24/7 and blood and gore. We do have that, but we just want you to feel for these characters, man. Henry is so malleable. He’s going through puberty and wants to have a girlfriend, and he’s really trying to do the right thing and to fit in. When you have power, you’re on such a razor-thin wire. We like to keep the audience questioning his morality.

Jamie Campbell Bower originated the role of Henry Creel in Season 4 of “Stranger Things.” (Netflix)

How would you describe the challenge of lending humanity to a character who does such awful things?

McCartney: If I’m just a villain in the play, then why are we doing the play? If he’s already there, then there’s nothing exciting, there’s no character building, there’s no arc. It’s giving enough so that it’s this muddy water where you know something’s wrong with him, but he seems to have hope — which is the conflict.

Bower: I have a question for you, Louis. There are these things that happen when you’re an actor that are really, really difficult to prepare for and to explain. All of a sudden something will be triggered in your own mind and there will be such truth in your heart. At a certain point, you just have to be prepared for the floodgate to open. I remember coming out of some of those scenes in Episode 7 [of Season 4] being like, “I need to sit down and have some air because there are things that I’ve just said that have stirred things up in me that have been dormant.” I wonder if you’ve had any moments like that as you’ve been going through this journey.

McCartney: It’s really interesting because it’s almost impossible to talk about. It’s the X-factor. It’s the magic. There are a couple scenes where you lose your mind a little and you scream and you do all that, and it’s extremely cathartic for me sometimes because I do lose myself in that. I hate to say this, but you’re better than me because you just have this ability to dip yourself into that pool. Not a toe — you put your full body into it, and I really admire that.

Jamie, what did you bring to the filming of Season 5 that may have been influenced by seeing “The First Shadow”?

Bower: I think one of the things that’s come up during work on Season 5, and watching the play as well, is this idea of safety. Where does this person feel safe enough to be themselves, and what does that look like? Doing Season 4 and going through the journey from human to monster, resentment becomes this vine that chokes the feeling of love. Ultimately, at the base of that is fear. In Season 5, there are certain things that happen where that idea of safety is so paramount.

McCartney plays the troubled teen who eventually becomes the “Stranger Things” villain Vecna. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Playing Henry must be a uniquely challenging and isolating experience. How do you each handle spending so much time in that headspace?

McCartney: I like to say that I’m not affected, but my sleep and dreams are weirder. I’m a natural sleep talker and walker, and I’ve been having real f---ed-up moments of just sleeping and talking and walking. It’s stuff you can’t control, and sometimes your brain doesn’t know what’s happening to you. You have to take a second to step back and go, “Am I okay?” It’s important to always just check in with yourself.

Bower: As I ventured into this darker place, there were certain physical things that happened to me. For instance, I had an insect live in my body for about a week. I was renting a house in Atlanta and I had a stray black cat turn up, live with me for the entirety of [Season 4] production, and then the day I was leaving did not turn up. In Season 5: cats, birds and snakes. So you’re inviting certain things into your world, and the universe is definitely responding in a certain way when you’re in that space.

Do you two have any questions you want to ask each other?

McCartney: Jamie, I don’t know if you know this, but my mom is a holistic therapist, so I grew up a very universal kind of guy. Like, she talks to the dead and that’s her job. When I try to find the fun in the day-to-day, it’s entirely soul-based. I need something that keeps me going that is out of my control. Aside from the writing, what makes you keep going with the character? Where do you find your drive?

Bower: Fear [laughs]. Just abject fear. There was a well and a wealth of lived experience and of possible self-creation that, when this [role] came through, I wanted to explore and I felt like I needed to explore. That was a really, really, really powerful and sometimes difficult journey to go on. So I think what kept me going and what kept the drive alive was that exploration of self.

And Jamie, do you have anything else you wanted to ask Louis?

Bower: The character is so physically demanding. Every time I see Louis, he’s just getting more and more stacked and more and more ripped. It’s fabulous, and in all honesty, I’m a little bit jealous. But I’m going to be your mother: Are you getting enough sleep? Are you getting enough to eat?

McCartney: [Laughs] Yes, I am. I shall protect myself.

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