Dacre Montgomery Talks Stranger Things Audition and Role
Jonathan Barkan
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We’re still a ways away from the second season of Netflix’s supernatural mystery series “Stranger Things” but that’s not stopping people from asking for more information. Case in point, in a recent interview with THR, Dacre Montgomery, who is doing press for Power Rangers, was asked about his role in the show and how he got it.
Montgomery explains just how far he went for his audition tape, even seemingly channeling Jame Gumb from The Silence of the Lambs at one point!
“…I got an email from my manager who [said], “There’s two season regulars joining Stranger Things, one of them is this 18-year-old bad boy.” I lost my shit, I was like, “I have to nail this.” I spent a day working on it and got two of my friends who were still at the acting university I went to help me that night put down a tape. I was so nervous [about] it and wanted it so badly I made like a short film. I had an opening score, opening titles and credits. And I got in like a G-string and danced naked to ’80s music with this leather jacket and crazy glasses. That night, Thursday night, I sent it off. I said to my team at 3 Arts and WME, I was like, “Dudes, this is crazy, literally the industry is going be like who the hell is this guy, or they’re going to love it. Hopefully the Duffers can handle this.”“
He continues, describing his character as having taken inspiration from another horror icon. “I played Billy. And he and Sadie, who plays my stepsister, had come to Hawkins, Indiana. We come to town and basically ruffle feathers I guess is my character’s place,” he states. “The Duffers were like, “We want somebody like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.” He’s wild, he’s unpredictable.”
He makes it clear that this approach is not just a quirk. His character, he explains, is a bad person and he embraced that opportunity. “I’ve got prosthetics, I’ve got a crazy car, I’ve got earrings and tats, and it’s so wild. My character is unpredictable. I’m playing the antagonist,” he gushes.
You can read the full interview at the link above.
“Stranger Things” Season 2 begins nearly a year after the first installment, on Halloween in Hawkins, Indiana. Will has rejoined his pals after being rescued from [last season’s] alternate dimension, the Upside Down. But all is not well with young Mr. Byers, as evidenced by the slug he coughed up in season 1’s final moments. His ultra-fraught mother, Joyce (Winona Ryder), is attempting to make things stable for Will and his brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and she is dating an old high school classmate, Bob (The Goonies’ Sean Astin).
Meanwhile, Hopper (David Harbour) is attempting to keep all the events of last season, like the disappearance of Barb, a secret in order to protect Joyce and the kids.
Shaking up the dynamics in Hawkins is the arrival of another brother-sister duo, Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and Max (Sadie Sink). While Max becomes pals with the boys and attracts romantic interest from Lucas and Dustin (played by actors Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo), Billy doesn’t exactly make friends.
The rift to the Upside Down remains open, as does the lab, now run by the seemingly friendly Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser). Show creators, The Duffer Brothers, are coy about what types of monsters we’ll see this season, but according to Matt, the show will be exploring “different kinds of horror.” And then there’s Eleven…
“Stranger Things” Season 2 takes place in 1984, one year after the events of the first season. Sean Astin, Paul Reiser, Brett Gelman, Linnea Berthelsen, Dacre Montgomery, Rob Morgan, and Sadie Sink all join the returning Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, and Charlie Heaton. Look for it to return on Halloween 2017.
About “Stranger Things 2”: A year after Will’s return, everything seems back to normal… but a darkness lurks just beneath the surface, threatening all of Hawkins.
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