What’s up?
It’s Emile Ennis Jr. here with Clevver News and Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer just spoke
out in a new interview to defend her younger Stranger Things co-stars from inappropriate
fans and media who over-sexualize them.
Stranger Things fans have been obsessed with the show for years now ever since the show
premiered back in 2016.
But many of the show’s cast members were really young starting out and are still considerably
young.
Many of the main cast members are only teenagers!
The kids are what makes the show so amazing, but the way that some people have talked about
them over the years is inappropriate given their age.
Millie Bobby Brown, who plays the iconic Eleven on Stranger Things, was only 12 years old
in season 1 and she’s only 16 years old now.
And Noah Schnapp, AKA Will Byers, is only 15 years old now which means he was only 11
when the show started.
Even some of the older cast members like Natalia Dyer started on the show when they were still
pretty young.
Natalia is 25 now, but over the past few years she’s become very protective of her even
younger castmates.
She herself was only 20 and a college student at NYU when she was cast in Stranger Things
and it was her first major role.
And in a new interview with The Independent, Natalia discussed specific incidences where
her younger castmates have been over sexualized.
Like when Millie Bobby Brown was listed as one of the reasons TV is quote “sexier than
ever” by W magazine when she was only 13 years old, among a group of much older actors
like Nicole Kidman and James Franco.
Both Millie and her fans previously spoke out about the inappropriateness of including
her on this list saying things like quote, “Hey @wmag Millie Bobby Brown is 13, why
are you describing her as sexy?
Please don't do that.”
And another Stranger Things star, Finn Wolfhard, has publicly spoken out about receiving suggestive
and inappropriate messages from adult fans back when he was only 14 years old.
All the while, other fans also have aggressively shipped Millie and Finn’s characters, who
are both children.
While shipping these two may seem harmless, Natalia thinks that all of this is inappropriate
and people need to be more careful with how they discuss child actors.
She said quote, “There are so many layers going on here.
I generally feel like, to me, it’s oversexualising them.
I feel protective over the younger kids even though they’re not kids anymore, they’re
teens.
They’re all great people and all having to grow up in very crazy circumstances.”
Natalia went on to say that the kids, and celebs in general, should be quote, “left
alone unless you’re talking about their work or what they want to talk about.
It’s a very tricky and complex issue.”
She also added that sexualizing young actors is quote, “a cultural issue and there must
be a bigger concept behind it as to why.
Just let people be the people that they are, without any judgement.”
Natalia also discussed that none of them anticipated Stranger Things would be as successful as
it is.
The show is one of the most popular shows to ever hit Netflix, but they all thought
they could be cancelled after the first season.
Natalia revealed that Netflix had only given the young cast one day’s worth of PR training
in “how to bridge around questions and avoid giving spoilers.”
She said quote, “No one had any idea how successful the show would be.
There was no preparation – there couldn’t have been, even if we’d known.
It was a surprising and overwhelming shock.
Then it was like, ‘OK, this is how it is now’.”
And it took her awhile to get used to this new level of fame.
She said quote “It’s lovely to meet fans, but it’s very like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just
want to go to the grocery store and get some milk.
I don’t want to take a photo everywhere I go.’
At first, it was jarring.
There are fans everywhere.
It’s a difficult thing to navigate.
It’s been like five years since we started Stranger Things, and I’ve become more confident
in how I handle situations.”Natalia explained that while she once felt anxiety about letting
fans down, she knows now that she doesn’t have to take a photo every single time she
meets someone if she isn’t feeling up to it.
And fans have been taking to Twitter to share their thoughts on Natalia’s interview, especially
about people inappropriately sexualizing her younger co-stars.
One person shared Natalia’s interview writing quote, “She's right and it's creepy AF.”
Another fan said “She's 100% correct.
Especially many of the comments from middle age women on the boys after season 1, if you
remember those.”
This person added “A thousand percent agreed!!!!!
Like my dudes, if they have a "teen" in their age STOP IT!”
And this fan said quote, “I think our culture needs to stop sexualizing kids/teens in general.
Whether its actors, tiktokkers, singers, whatever.
They can dress/post however they want, but its how people talk about them that can be
damaging.
I know it's crazy but we can let them live and not comment on it.”
And obviously we couldn’t agree more.
Many of the Stranger Things cast members are still minors and we’re just glad Natalia
used her voice to bring to light this important issue.
And if you just can’t wait for Stranger Things season 4 and some spoiler theories,
click right over here for another Clevver News video.
Also, let us know down in the comments below what you think of Natalia’s interview.
I’m your host Emile Ennis Jr., bye guys!