‘Stranger Things’ star terrified himself with his own performance

Warning: Spoilers for Stranger Things season four, volume one to follow.

Stranger Things is knocking it out of the park yet again, capturing the imaginations of fans old and new with branching storylines, gripping fantasy, and a myriad of top-notch performances from a beloved cast.

Along with the core Hawkins gang, we’ve seen plenty of new characters enter the fray, such as the disturbing Victor Creel (Robert Englund), and Jonathan’s new best friend Argyle (Eduardo Franco).

Among the newcomers, arguably none have matched the superb performance of Jamie Campbell Bower as One, the child experiment-turned-orderly that initially befriends Eleven, only to use his powers to slaughter her adoptive brothers and sisters before losing the final confrontation against the young girl. Final, that is, if he hadn’t then transformed into series antagonist Vecna.

Bower plays something of a dual role in the show, coming across as warm and trusting at first, but quickly becomes possessed with a twisted malice that terrifies when it emerges in the open. Evidently, this didn’t just include audiences, as the actor explained in an interview with Variety that he himself became terrified of his character when it came time to embrace his evil side.

“It was scary, I’ll be honest with you. Particularly when I’m Henry or One, there’s so much manipulation that’s going on in there. To work with a young person or a child or somebody who’s much younger, that was an interesting dynamic. And the things that would sort of pop up in the brain were quite weird and odd.”

Volume one of season four of Stranger Things is currently available to stream on Netflix. Volume two is set to release on July 1.