- Do you identify as a Gryffindor?
- There's a test you can take online for what
- [Josh] The sorting hat, yeah of course
- Hufflepuff. I think that's what I am.
(Josh laughs)
- Are you laughing at me?
What are you?
- I'm just so, I haven't sorted myself yet.
- Oh, well then I don't think you can be laughing.
(Josh laughs)
- I'm just, it was the way you said it,
is that you were unsure about it.
- Well, I'm Hufflepuff!
- Okay, good. I support that.
- Thank you.
- Which by the way is very difficult to say.
- Yes so, it's very confusing.
- [Josh] Noah Schnapp, it's good to see you man.
- It's good to see you too.
- Congratulations. Sundance. The movie is “Abe.”
I've seen it. It's a great piece of work, man.
- Oh, thank you.
- And it's a big moment for you, I would think.
- It's very exciting.
- There are a lot of levels, I would think,
that are exciting about a project like this,
and being at Sundance.
What's the thing that gets you the most excited
about this project?
- Well I mean, just getting to be here
at Sundance is very exciting.
It's my first time and I've done the Sundance labs
a few years ago, but this is my first time
being at Sundance.
- And it's a big moment also in that this is,
and correct me if I'm wrong,
this is your first leading role in a film.
I mean this, I mean you are Abe.
- Yeah, I know.
It's very exciting and it was a long process of auditioning.
We did a lot of rehearsals and preparing for the role,
and I'm just,
I can't say enough how excited I am to see it.
- [Josh] Did it feel like a different kind of weight
on your shoulders, being the title character.
Being the person the story revolves all around.
- Yeah there's definitely things
I've never had to do before that I got to do.
Or like when we shot for the poster of the movie,
the poster is me,
and my face,
and it was just
it's just a very cool experience,
to get to see that and see like my face on a poster.
- [Josh] Yeah.
- And it's just really exciting.
- What do you love about this character?
- It's an interesting character, he's kind of caught
between two different worlds.
- Well I mean, this character is a very relatable character
to not just me, but any kid my age.
I mean, there's a scene in the movie
where he gets pressured into doing drugs,
and I think a lot of kids my age can connect to that scene
and peer pressure
[Josh] Right
- and I'm Jewish and Abe has a Jewish in his lineage.
So yeah, I can connect to him a lot.
And he loves cooking, and I feel like because of this movie,
I've kind of grown to love cooking, too.
- I was going to say, that is a big part of the film.
He has this real passion for it.
- I love food!
- I mean who doesn't? But come on,
so did you pick up any,
are you now an aspiring chef
- Yeah, I mean I wouldn't say I'm an expert chef,
but before the movie I did a lot of,
I had to,
I learned kind of like basics
with knives and how to dice and cut and stuff
and I feel like, I mean, I think I got pretty good at it.
And I'd say
- Would your friends an family agree with you? Or
(Josh laughs)
- Well, the other day I made banana bread by myself.
- [Josh] Wow
- And I thought it was very good,
but my parents didn't love it.
(Josh laughs)
- Look, you have to please yourself first, and then
- I loved it, and my dad threw it out. So
- Okay! So there's room to improve is what we're saying!
- Yeah. Exactly.
- It's not to everybody's taste, that's okay.
Did you shoot this in New York?
- Yes. In Brooklyn.
- So, and you grew up in New York,
so that must be special for you too.
- Yeah it was really cool.
I filmed another movie called “Bridge of Spies,”
when I was younger, in Brooklyn,
- Sure.
- And it was just, it's special.
I love, I've always wanted to live in Brooklyn.
Or in the city.
And we did some shots where I would just,
me and like three other people would go out into the subway
and just, and film like a very small crew.
And it's really exciting cause like
I kind of got to learn about the city,
and explore and at the same time, act
and be a part of this movie.
- Are people chill like noticing you in the city?
I mean New Yorkers are pretty like,
you know they don't go too crazy
if they see someone they recognize.
- Yeah. I think it was okay.
I don't remember it being too bad when we were filming.
- [Josh] Yeah.
So what are, I mean in the wake of “Stranger Things,”
the opportunities that are coming your way,
has it been exciting?
Daunting, to kind of figure out the path to choose?
- Yeah, I mean it's just, I mean my whole life
has kind of changed in a way and at the same time hasn't.
And I just, I mean, who would have thought I'd be here,
talking to you right now,
and Sundance, like I'm just very lucky
and grateful for what I get to do.
And “Stranger Things,” it was just, I got very lucky
and it became a hit and it was successful.
And I'm just very grateful to be able to be a part of that,
and I can't wait to see.
This was a special opportunity I got,
and I'm excited for all the other opportunities.
- Natalia just came by yesterday
- Oh yeah.
- Natalia, your co-star, she spilled all the secrets
of season four, so you can just regurgitate for me.
In all seriousness I know we can't say much at all.
- Yes.
- We know it takes place during the summer.
- Summer of 1985.
- [Josh] Okay.
- They just announced it comes out July fourth.
- [Josh] Right.
You're in it still.
- I'm still in it and
and you're gonna like it.
- I'm sure I will.
Do you go through hell in this one?
Do you catch a break this time around?
- I mean, I don't think anyone in our show
ever gets a break.
(Josh laughs)
that's kind of what it's about.
So I can't really say I get to just relax
by the beach, but
- Right. That would be a boring season.
- Exactly! I have to like go through something
otherwise people are going to stop watching
- [Josh] Right, can you say does the threat this year
live up to the demogorgon of the past?
Like how does it
- Oh, yeah the threat is
it's brutal.
It gets bad. It's very big.
- That's good.
- Yeah, I feel like every season it kinda gets
more like it's taking over Hawkins.
- [Josh] Right. Do you
How many people in your world know
about like what's happened for instance this next season?
Do you tell your friends and family?
Or do you just keep it to yourself?
- I've told some people, some things.
- Okay. Can you give me their names
so maybe I can get more outta them than you.
- I haven't said, no but I haven't said
no I'm good about it.
I used to be really, like when one of my first movies
I played Charlie Brown in “The Peanuts Movie”
and I remember it was like my first thing,
I was like eight years old, nine,
I don't remember how old I was,
but I remember that we had to do the whole NDA thing
and it was like very confidential.
You can't talk about it.
And I remember the first time I like got it,
I just told everyone that I ever knew
like what it was about and
(Josh laughs)
I remember one time, I was with someone
and they were talking, and I was with my parents,
and they were like, “Oh you're gonna be in that,”
cause no one was supposed to know I was gonna be in it
and they were like “Oh, you're gonna be
in that new Charlie Brown movie” and my parents were there
and I remember, I kept like trying to shush them,
and I'm like, my parents can't hear this.
No one can know.
But I've learned
- [Josh] You've learned lesson.
- Yes and now I'm very good about it.
- You've told me almost nothing, so congratulations
you're doing good.
Coming out of Sundance, and coming out of an opportunity
like “Abe,” is there a specific kind of a role,
like a dream role right now that you're itching to play?
- Yeah. I mean, Abe was one of them.
I feel like
I've always wanted to play
a just, really something completely opposite of me.
Like a serial killer or something really scary and deep,
and eerie but I'm, I mean I love any role really.
I love when I get to do something that's just not me.
- [Josh] Yeah.
- Cause then I just kinda get to
that's what acting is, you play another character,
and it's fun.
- Totally. That's an exciting time, man.
And congratulations on this one.