David Harbour – best known as Chief Jim Hopper on the Netflix Original Stranger Things and for playing the titular character in the Hellboy reboot – has taken to social media with a rather unusual decision for a celebrity.
In an Instagram post this morning, Harbour told his many followers that he has a number set up through a community app that will now allow them to text him and tell him about themselves. The move comes in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus, apparently prompting some strong empathy from Harbour, who’s looking to compile a list of those who reach out so that he can find ways to connect people together during such dark times.
It’s great to see celebrities using their influence to help bring entertainment and connection to those waiting out the virus in self-isolation, and Harbour isn’t the first, either. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for social distancing and advised spring breakers to reconsider their vacation choices this year, and William Shatner has entertained his followers with captain log parodies from the original Star Trek. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, meanwhile, have taken the more blunt approach, with the former using his usual sarcasm and wit to point out who the real heroes are in this fight and the latter doing what he does best with the word he likes most.
Stranger Things‘ fourth season doesn’t have a release date yet, but a teaser trailer revealed that David Harbour will return after an uncertain fate at the end of the previous season. He’ll also star as Red Guardian in Marvel’s recently delayed Black Widow, a film Disney might end up releasing straight to streaming services due to the current pandemic forcing theaters to close around the world.
