‘Stranger Things’ star explains why his new role is so against-type

Like a select handful of the Stranger Things cast, Gaten Matarazzo is one of Hollywood’s shiniest up-and-comers of today. From Broadway to Stranger Things to Green Day music videos and now Honor Society, it’s project after project for the young maverick.

After winning hearts all over with his turn as Dustin Henderson, the wildly entertaining walking exposition of Stranger Things, Matarazzo has eyed his next role in the Paramount Plus comedy film Honor Society. Matarazzo portrays Michael Dipnicky, starring opposite Angourie Rice’s Honor Rose as an awkward high school senior under consideration for recommendation for Harvard. With Honor gunning for that advocacy, she seeks to eliminate all other contenders, with Michael ending up being her biggest challenge, in no small part because his kind, intellectual demeanor begins to win her over.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Matarazzo touched on the peculiar dichotomy between Michael and Dustin, noting how the two settings are tonally different from one another, and also contrast with the character he plays in each of the properties. To top it off, his two characters contrast these settings in ways that entirely invert each other.

What’s interesting is that Dustin is a much more comedically-driven character in a project that’s not really driven by its comedy. And I think Michael [in Honor Society] is a character that’s not necessarily driven so much by his knack for comedic timing in a movie that is driven through comedy… That was a really different vibe, trying to match those tones up. Because you’re trying to dial something back when the surrounding people around you are bringing the comedy forward. I’m used to doing [the opposite] on Stranger Things, so that was really interesting. But it was a lot of fun.

Honor Society is currently streaming on Paramount Plus.