- Hi, I am Natalia Dyer
and I'm in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
(slow rock music)
- Okay, so Natalia, season three.
- Yeah.
- Do you have to do anything
when a season drops to prepare yourself?
Do you have to go on social media blackout, or...?
- Yes I think naturally,
I'm not super on top of social media
for that reason, just in general.
So yeah, I think,
I think I tend to back off a little bit,
after 'cause there's a lot and I'm an anxious person so,
it's a little bit of anxiety for me,
but of course there's a lot of,
a lot of love from fans
from all over which is incredible and amazing.
But yeah, I think my tendency
is to just pull back a little bit
'cause it can be a little intense.
- Yeah, I feel like all three seasons had
very different debuts 'cause you had
a very secret debut for the first season, so you--
- Yeah, it was like...
- What was that like? - I mean...
- You didn't know what was going to happen...
- Yeah.
- Whether the show was going to be successful.
- No, we left season one.
When we wrapped, we looked at each other
and it was like one of those
good-bye, maybe forever?
I hope, I think this was fun,
I think it's good, you think it's good, but who knows?
When you put it out, what the context is,
how people react to it, you have no idea.
So, I think all of us weren't quite sure.
The press around season one wasn't really there as much.
Just kind of happened and then,
yeah, the reaction was just overwhelmingly nice,
but overwhelming still.
It was surreal.
Things started to pick up really quickly.
- What's the most surreal moment
of the out-of-control success of "Stranger Things"?
- Oh gosh, when you have a Funko Pop doll of yourself
is bizarre, but yeah, people in general, just people.
And I was living in New York,
that's where I live now, but it was the day
it came out, somebody, "You're Nancy!"
and I'm just like, "It just...oh my...really?"
and ever since then, that's a thing.
Yeah, there's a lot of surreal.
I think your brain tries to adapt to it
to make sense of it and this is me now,
but anytime I examine that whole situation,
it's just very bizarre, surreal world.
- Yeah, well let's a little about what happens
to Nancy in season three.
Were you excited to find out that she was
going into a career as an investigative reporter?
- Yes, oh my gosh yes, it made so much sense.
She was always intelligent
and smart, thinking girl,
but this curious sensibility,
this nose for finding the truth
and finding it out and knowing.
You see it in season one, and then season two
they meet Murray,
and I do think Murray is a bit of a weird mentor
for Nancy in a way.
Somebody who really has devoted themselves
to finding out the truth and getting it out there
and I think it's a very natural progression for her
in the normal world to explore
the investigative journalism side of things.
- And what was it like
to have to dig into what
Nancy has to go through, because she's dealing
with conflict on three fronts.
She's got a horrible, crazy rat infestation mystery going.
She's fighting with Jonathan, but she's also
dealing with sexual discrimination,
which I think is
a more serious topic for "Stranger Things".
- It is.
I don't think they approach it in a heavy-handed way.
In fact I think they put it in the show
in a very matter-of-fact just obvious
of course this is a thing that,
I mean it was happening then, it's still happening,
but I think to see that in a show that's very fun
and there's a lot of fun elements,
and it's a fun thing to watch.
I'm glad that they threw that in there
and gave Nancy this chance to push up against
a different kind of conflict
'cause she's grown into a woman who's confident
and she knows she's smart, but this is
one of the first times that the world is pushing back
and being like, you know,
but nobody's listening, but you're not,
but there's all this self-doubt, I mean,
you know, teenage girl, it's like you start
to hit these walls that are placed
and she's bumping into this,
and seething, she's so angry
and it spirals into this journey
that I think helps her grow,
felt very cathartic as well.
But I just think it's so relatable,
and of course it's a period show, and to see that
and like, "Oh yeah, the '80s" but to recognize
that people are obviously still feeling this so much.
It's easy for a woman, for me, to go in there.
It's like, yeah, I know what this feels like.
Of course I do know what this feels like
to be looked down upon by older men
and underestimated by men, and I think that's
a very relatable thing, so I'm very curious to see
how people will react to it,
but I'm glad, I was really quite excited when I started.
I was like, oh yeah, like yes, let's do this!
- Yeah, and you were able to really dig from a personal
place to be able to kind of--
- Yeah, because it's funny - make it effective.
- Because Nancy's also bet like she has this sense of self
but she's also, in season one she's a bit of pleaser,
she's a bit of a good girl,
so it's like fighting that presentational self
versus what's really in there.
- And then there's a little bit of a casting Easter egg
because one of your tormentors is Jake Busey,
Gary Busey's son, '80s icon.
- [Natalia] Of course.
What was that like to be having those intense
humiliation scenes with Jake Busey?
- Yeah, Jake and Michael as well, both of them
they deliver so much, and they're so generous
and so in it, so they were incredible actors
to work with, but they're also the nicest funny
family guys, and really lovely, and of course
you do an intense and then you break
and then you're laughing and they really clear the air
of bad energy, which I think is good too,
when you've done like seven episodes it's always
nice to be with actors who have that levity.
- No method actors on set.
- Right.
No, with that, I mean, no please.
Get outta town.
- And you have this really touching scene with your mother
too played by Cara Buono.
- Yeah.
- That was really intense.
It's really beautiful to see the two of you
get to comisserate with each other
while you're going on these crazy
sci-fi adventures. - Yeah.
- There's this moment of truth
between the two of you. - Like really good,
and those are my favorite parts of the show.
I mean of course it's really fun to shoot these sci-fi
adventure, fun action things, really fun,
but I think what I love about this show
is that there are these grounding scenes
where you're just real, where you're like
this is a real person, this is a real conversation,
these are real relationships, so I love that scene.
I'm so happy 'cause
Nancy and her mother had some scenes in the past,
but they've always been quite distant,
trying to, the classic mother-teenage daughter like,
"Get out of my room!"
but to see her as she grows into being a woman
to pull her mother closer and be like, "Help me."
and I think there's that mutual,
I think they help each other in that moment.
Yeah, it was so nice,
and of course, Cara's lovely.
She's just a lovely human, she's a lovely actress,
so it was a really good day.
- Okay, so let's talk a little bit about the sci-fi
element of "Stranger Things" season three.
The old lady that you're investigating.
Does she explode?
'Cause I really don't want her to explode.
- I don't know if I can say.
What I can say about her is that she is amazing.
As an actress, that woman is incredible.
She gave so much all the time every time.
She was game for everything.
- And you know a little bit about the other story lines.
Is there another story line that you would've liked
to have jumped into,
whether it was the Starcourt Mall sleuths
or the exorcism of Billy or Joyce's super magnet mystery.
Any of those stories that you would've liked
to have been a part of?
- I'm always pitching hanging out with Murray.
Brett's so fun to hang out with,
and he's great to work with,
but I do think I'm so interested in that dynamic
between Nancy and Murray.
I think they have,
they push each other in a way that I think
is just an interesting thing to explore,
so I think that would've been fun.
But I feel pretty good about Nancy's story line
this year she get to go through.
She goes through quite a bit.
She has a good ride.
- Yeah and it all comes together.
Everything comes together
- It does, right. - I'm assuming.
- I mean, it's just, it's the nature of family.
(laughs)
- [Interviewer] What would you like to see for Nancy
as you head into the next adventure?
- It's always really hard to say because I mean
we literally don't know anything.
We got nothing.
So you can only really imagine.
But I really like the direction she's going in.
I think what makes sense,
I keep being very adamant, I'm like,
Nancy cannot go to college.
Nothing against college, but I'm just like,
if you went through this, all of this stuff,
how could go sit through, you know.
But who knows?
The brothers always pull through and write
amazing story lines for everybody,
and they think of things you could never think of,
but I can't see Nancy backing down or,
I think that's just an inherent quality in her,
this journalistic, this figure things out.
She gets some satisfaction out of it
that I think she would struggle to find
anywhere else at this point,
so yeah, it's really hard to say,
because they know what they're doing and I don't, so.
(laughs)
- [Interviewer] Another thing I wanted to point out was
how amazing your wardrobe was this season.
You definitely got the best clothing I think
out of any of the characters.
- Yeah it was fun.
In general I think the colors this season,
the cuts, the shapes of things, it's finally warm.
So you get to explore a whole
different kind of '80s clothing.
Pool stuff is cool.
So that was fun, different to wear some lighter
colorful things and in contrast with the darkness
of this season, you know where it goes.
But yeah, there is some good ones.
Yeah, she's definitely taken on a more,
with the show, when we find her,
she's taken on a little bit more of a professional
or what a teenage girl might
think of professional kind of nay static.
- Yeah, and I'm gonna go real '80s on you and say
she's straight out of a kajagoogoo video,
which I'm assuming you have no idea what I'm saying.
- That sounds so fun, it does.
(laughs)
- Who teaches you about the '80s?
Is there anybody who--
- I mean, right, so my main reference is my mother
of course 'cause she loves the '80s.
But you know everyone on set of course,
everyone working in costumes, everyone like hair,
everybody, most everybody was around for the '80s
and they're passionate about it,
and I think that's part of what makes the show so great
is because you have all these people who are
really passionate about getting it right
and getting it detailed.
I mean I didn't really do,
aside from watching film references,
I didn't do a whole lot of deep dives into '80s
magazines and stuff, but just yeah, talking to people.
We've been living in that world
of that space for a minute
so it feels not exactly familiar,
but it's a nice escape when we are filming,
but no, I mean, no I don't.
This is something I shouldn't know.
- No, no, you definitely should not have to know
about Kajagoogoo.
- Kajagoogoo?
This is a band.
What kind of band is this?
- That is very obscure reference, but it's a pop
band from the '80s, yeah.
- I mean, it's good to know.
- You could look up their videos.
- That's the vibe?
- The dresses, yeah, the cool vibe of the dresses.
Very unlike early Madonna too.
- Right, no, I do think is a lot of, I mean
I remember in the wardrobes department
you know we go down for fittings
and the walls are plastered with cutouts
and pages from '80s magazines, fashion magazines,
and it's just so interesting,
and it's also interesting to see the trends
that inevitably cycle back,
that cycle back into society,
and you're like, oh yeah, you can find that
at Urban Outfitters right now.
But yeah, it's cool.
To have everybody care so much about the specificity
of what they're doing really just makes the show what it is.
- Yeah, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you, yeah.
- And "Stranger Things" season three on Netflix.
Check it out.
- Watch it.