How Stranger Things 5 almost killed me...
A look at what it's really like interviewing the cast & crew of the world's biggest TV show
“I’m so sorry,” Linda Hamilton says. “I hate being late.”
I’ve been waiting by my computer for a Zoom call with Sarah Connor for about fifteen minutes, which is pretty much on time for a junket interview (I once held my bladder for five hours waiting for an actor…). “Don’t worry,” I say. “Thanks for making time.”
I ask where she’s calling from and, after a few seconds, nothing. I begin to talk again, unsure whether she thought this was just meaningless small talk and we should get on with the proper questions, but as I begin, she starts answering. My stomach sinks. Connection issues. A stilted call over wi-fi is bad enough at the best of times, but right now, every word counts – literally, I had to turn the next 20 minutes into a 1700-word feature.
About five minutes into our conversation, centred on the new season of Stranger Things, I realise that it’s my internet that’s the issue; I’ve just moved house, the wi-fi box is further away than it used to be, and Linda Hamilton’s the first person I’m speaking to from my new office. So, in a move that I’ve never done before, I decide to run downstairs with my laptop, showing her my hallway, apologising and narrating what I’m doing as I go so that she doesn’t think I’m a loony but actually sounding a little loony-ish.
“I’m so sorry, my connection’s bad,” I say, jumping from my chair. “Down these stairs, try not to trip, past my pregnant wife, through the door, and now, I’m on the sofa. Sorry about that.”
The connection is a lot better, but I’ve made a key mistake: mentioning my wife. Hamilton’s now keen to find out more. We spend the next couple of minutes talking about fatherhood, and she tells me about becoming a grandmother, which, of course, under any other circumstance, would be lovely, but right now, the clock’s ticking. I put us back on track, and by the end, we’ve covered everything we need to.
“Good luck with being a dad,” she says. “And sorry about being late.”
This job can be surreal. No sooner have I logged off a Zoom call from an 80s icon, I’m sitting in an antenatal class, learning about labour pains and cesareans. A few hours later, I’m back doing more interviews for Stranger Things, and over the next few days, I’ll do even more. By the end of the final interview – a second round with the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers – I’m exhausted.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I was signing on for when I agreed to do SFX’s Stranger Things coverage. I do a lot for the magazine – a wonderful publication, every sci-fi fan should subscribe – and a commission normally entails turning one or two interviews into a feature. Originally, I was going to do three or four interviews for Stranger Things 5, another writer doing the others, but plans changed: I ended up doing all the interviews for the first cover feature (the Duffer brothers, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp) followed by a second cover for which I re-interviewed the Duffers, plus Hamilton, and then Shawn Levy, Sadie Sink, Nell Fisher, and Jamie Bower Camber. Oh, and I spoke to the show’s costume designer and production designer. That made for over 20,000 words of Stranger Things coverage. Jesus. I should write the book.
None of this, however, is really an excuse to be as tired as I am. For that, I choose to blame Netflix – and not the fact that my wife’s pregnant or that I’ve just moved house…
It was a Sunday morning when a rep for Netflix dropped me a message. They wanted to know if I was free that evening to speak to Shawn Levy about Stranger Things. He was on a flight back from Los Angeles to London, where he was filming Star Wars: Starfighter, and had half an hour to spare in the car from Heathrow to his hotel.
“Could you make that work? We may not have time again with him.”
I can make it work, I replied – you can’t really say otherwise to the director of last year’s highest-grossing movie (Deadpool & Wolverine), even if it’s a Sunday and I’ve got plans to see my parents. The bigger concern is that I’ve only been given access to the first episode of Stranger Things 5, and I’m meant to be asking questions about the fifth episode and beyond.
“We do not have access to those episodes yet,” I’m told.
Well, that’s OK. I’ll make something work. I drive to my parents’ and prepare some questions. Then, midway through lunch, an email from Netflix.
“Good news, you’ve just been given access to the next three episodes! See you on the call later.”
I log on and see the episode lengths. Fuck. I have four hours until the interview, and the three episodes are all over an hour long. I make like Augustus Gloop with a Wonka bar and finish my food quickly, kiss my mother (with that mouth!), stuff my wife into the car, and we’re on our way home, speeding along so I have enough time to watch the episodes, and by some miracle, might be able to prepare half-decent questions about them. Luckily,I made it home in one piece, my early access to the episodes worked (sometimes it doesn’t…), and I jumped on Zoom with barely a second to spare.
“Hi, Jack,” Levy beamed. “You’re the first person I’m talking to about this show. I’m excited to get into it.” It was a great conversation.
I’ve joked to friends that writing 20,000 words about Stranger Things 5 (and then another 5K for online, and another 4K for more issues of SFX) almost killed me. It might not have, but it was a crazy moment in a career I’ve been lucky to have.