Debuting July 15th on Netflix, Stranger Things is a big trip back to the 1980s, in a series not just set in that era but immersed in the vibe of beloved films and books from that time. The set-up involves the disappearance of a boy, Will (Noah Schnapp), and the search that ensues for him – both by his mother (Winona Ryder) and by his friends (Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo), who also come across an odd girl, only called Eleven (Millie Brown), with a shaved head and some very powerful abilities.
Evoking the otherworldly encounter stories of Steven Spielberg and the more overt horror/conspiracy elements of John Carpenter, Stranger Things is a very fun mash up of genres, anchored around the strong performance by its child leads. The series is the brainchild of the Duffer Brothers, Ross and Matt, who previously wrote for Wayward Pines and wrote and directed the film Hidden.
I spoke with the Duffer Brothers about the big influences Stranger Things evokes, casting both the kid actors and the iconic Ryder (in her first ongoing TV series role) and much more.
IGN: What were your first conversations about like about this show? Do you remember what it was that really sparked the idea for it?
Ross Duffer: Part of it was us just getting excited about television and the way it was going, because we grew up as such movie fans, and that was our obsession. It’s not that we didn’t watch things like The X-Files -- we did, and we enjoyed it a lot -- but we fell in love with the movies, and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. Obviously it started with The Sopranos, but I remember the first teasers for True Detective and Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick, and it was just us going, “Oh, this is such an exciting arena where we can be part of this generation that’s attempting to push the boundaries of what TV is and making it more and more cinematic.” So I think that’s where the initial idea came from. And it was us just talking about, “If we could see any show in the world, what would it be?” And we wanted something in the vein of the classic films we loved growing up. Obviously the influences are all over the show, whether it’s Spielberg’s stuff or John Carpenter or the novels of Stephen King. And I think for us looking at it, it’s like, “What is it about these stories that resonated so much with us when we were growing up?” And I think really what it is, what connects all of them even though tonally sometimes they’re different -- but what really connects them is that these very ordinary people encountering these very extraordinary things. So I think those were the initial conversations, of can we get back to that style of storytelling? Because it does feel like a lot of stuff nowadays, especially in the feature film days, it’s either IP-based or it’s about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, and we enjoy those same movies as well, but we wanted to sort of get back to this simpler style of storytelling.
IGN: Going beyond the influences, which I do want to get more into, did you always know you wanted it to also be set in the 1980s? Did you feel like you kind of had to, given what the influences were?
Matt Duffer: It did. We started to talk about, sort of, government experiments in the end of the Cold War, and I think that was initially why we were talking about the late 70s and the early 80s. And then we also realized that that would kind of allow us to pay homage to these films we grew up loving. So it was kind of a combination; we felt that it was a nice marriage. It got us what we wanted in terms of the backdrop for the show, for the government experiments, and it also allowed us to pay homage.
Ross: But when I go back and watch E.T. or whatnot, it doesn’t feel kitschy at all. It doesn’t feel dated, it feels so timeless and like a fairytale. And so while there is nostalgia involved, we don’t want people focused on, “Oh, that was so cute, I remember that from the 80s.” We want people to fall in love with the characters in the story.
IGN: You’ve centered on these kids, which is a great touchstone in and of itself for stories of that era. Kids on bikes! I grew up in the 80s, and that was a big thing.
Matt: Oh, it’s the best. I think, yeah, kids dealing with horrifying supernatural forces is to me kind of the best sub-genre in the world. And there’s not a lot of it out there, especially stuff that’s not targeting kids. I like that a younger audience can enjoy the show, but honestly we wrote the pilot originally to appeal to ourselves entirely and then any hope that it resonates with other people. There’s obviously Stephen King’s IT which we’re huge fans of, Dan Simmons Summer of Night , that’s similar in a lot of respects. And JJ Abrams did Super 8. There’s not a ton of it but I just love it so much. We have a real soft spot for that.
IGN: When it comes to casting these kids, what was that process like? There are very different types of kids and kid actors than we saw back then. Was it an interesting challenge to find the right set of kids here?
Ross: When you boil it down, it’s casting the widest net possible. We’re seeing tons and tons of kids, pretty much every kid in this age range that wants to act. When it came down to it, it wasn’t like we had three choices for Mike and a couple for Luke. It was like “These are our four kids.” And we couldn’t imagine anyone else in the roles. The other interesting thing is that when we cast it, we only had one script written. So when we cast each kid, it wasn’t like the lined up with what was in the script. They sort of helped inform the energy of the characters and so I think that helps us moving forward in terms of defining these characters and making the kids stand out.
IGN: They feel very genuine. Because you can get a certain type of kid actor who can feel like a "Kid Actor."
Matt: Oh my God, yeah. That’s the terrifying thing about it. A bad child performance can ruin anything. It’s a lot of what you’re saying, it’s about authenticity and we looked at a lot. We loved Stand By Me. We had the kids read scenes from Stand By me. You’re looking for someone who feels very real. 99% of them fall into the category you’re describing. They feel like they’re acting. It’s hard for them to get lost in the screen. They’re very aware that they have lines and need to act. But if you find kids who can casually and effortlessly deliver these lines, there aren’t a lot of options.
Ross: We can’t take so much credit in terms of the directing because you don’t have that much time. You only have a certain number of hours and you only have the kids for a certain number of hours and you only have a certain number of days to shoot. These kids are really just delivering day in and day out. There’s not really much room to mess around or get them to a place. It was honestly about -- they’re a bunch of twelve-year-old boys -- getting them to focus. The minute they did, they were great. But most kids were unable -- 99.9% of kids are unable to do that.
IGN: How did Winona's name come up in all this?
Matt: Joyce was our first role we were looking to cast. We wanted someone big and iconic for it. Our casting director, Carmen Cuba, her first idea was Winona. We got really excited. The reason we were really excited about the idea was because she’s just one of those actors that we’re fans of and we just haven’t seen enough of her lately. And I just wanted to see more of her so I got excited and I figured if we felt that way probably other people feel that way. We’re more 90s kids than 80s kids so we grew up steeped in her films. I had at least three or four of her movies in our steady, VHS rotation. There’s Beetlejuice obviously and Edward Scissorhands and Little Women which I think is f**king awesome. She’s amazing in it.
Ross: You send her the script and you cross your fingers and luckily she responded to it. I don’t think five years ago she would have done it. I think because there’s been this migration of really well regarded, well respected actors heading into television, I think she and a lot of other actors are excited about the possibility of what TV can offer. Luckily she responded to it.
Continue on as the Duffer Brothers discuss the show’s mixture of genres and the joy of being scared.
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