‘Stranger Things’ Star Jamie Campbell Bower Dives Deep Into Villain Vecna’s Final Form

[This story contains major spoilers through Volume 1 of Stranger Things season five.]

Call him Lord Vecna. Call him Number One. Call him by his birth name, Henry Creel. Now, you can add one more moniker to the ever-growing list of names that Jamie Campbell Bower‘s Stranger Things villain goes by: Mister Whatsit. However you address the dark heart of the Netflix hit, just know that you’re addressing all of them at once.

“They’re all varying entities of himself,” Bower tells The Hollywood Reporter, surveying the many identities he’s taken on to play the big bad. “Mister Whatsit, I’d say, is obviously a presentation of who he considers, and wishes, himself to be. But it’s a memory for him more than an actual human being. It’s a performance; an amalgamation of all the things he’s known and of what he thinks would make people safe.”

In season five, Bower’s Vecna approaches the master stroke of his years-long plot, concocted in the depths of the Upside Down. The full extent of his machinations remain unknown heading into the second half, but they involve abducting as many children from Hawkins as possible. As abductees, these kids have no idea they’re in a monstrous underworld; instead, for them, they envision themselves in a palatial manor — Charles Xavier’s School for the Gifted, in a sense, with a genial Vecna as Mister Whatsit, the veritable Professor X. If that’s what this monster considers a safe image for children?

“Then it’s pretty dark,” Bower says, laughing. “It’s definitely dark.”

It’s a dark season indeed for Bower, who recalls a variety of odd occurrences — stranger things, if you will — that cropped up during his time filming the final season. Below, he speaks more with THR about those incidents, what it involved to tap into Vecna’s endgame era and what he learned about his character from watching the Vecna-centric Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage production.

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We can joke about what to call your character, but truthfully, the joke exists because there are all so many various shades and definitions for Vecna. He’s the imposing ultra villain of the show, but also a kid who never grew up. As an actor, you must feel like a kid in a candy shop with this role.

One-hundred percent. I felt like I’d bitten off a large amount of something when I was asked if I could join the show for season four. I spent so much time considering him as a child and considering his childhood, his environment and his upbringing when he was more human. When it came to Vecna, it was this idea of pure resentment, and I felt very comfortable there. Then of course, come to Stranger Things 5, and all of a sudden there’s this new iteration and presentation of the character that felt like another bite.

That was quite a meaty bite to have because as an actor. There are so many times where what you want to be doing is playing the truth, and the truth in this scenario is clearly that Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) is being used in some way, and he’s not telling her. And that is a terrifying thing to sit opposite a child and have to lie; that means it’s really, really scary. As this season progresses, you will see more. Those were moments where that felt like a really big sigh; like a huge breath out. As an actor, it’s a privilege. Personally, it’s also very terrifying. It’s very, very scary to play. A big undertaking.

Would you tend to take him with you off set?

Yeah, I think so. Sometimes. There were definitely some really interesting things that happened to me while making this show. Really spooky things.

Such as?

Well, I had a cat come and live with me. A stray cat came to me and lived with me.

If a cat picked Vecna, he can’t be all that bad!

He must be kind of cute, right? (Laughs.) Then there were snakes that would appear outside my door. Definitely some odd things that did occur. Then personally as well, taking it with you, of course, when you’re existing in that darker space. He’s actually a very lonely character. Very, very lonely. And to talk about coincidences, for the final read-through of the final episode, I got COVID. So everybody was there in the room reading, but I was on a Zoom call.

Which itself is kind of the Upside Down.

I agree! I felt like I was hundreds of miles away from the room. So it’s definitely is something you take with you for a period of time. You are always thinking about it. It’s always going on in the back of my mind. 

How much did the Duffers let you inside their plans for Vecna heading into this final season?

I wish I I had known more than I did. Obviously for [season] four, I went into that knowing so much, more than perhaps anybody else on the cast. I felt really sad going into [season] five, not knowing as much as I did, not having that power within me. I don’t think Matt and Ross would mind me telling you this, that as I’m receiving the scripts and going through the process, I’m firing over text message — just paragraphs of messages of questions, to the point where I think I was in the U.S. and flying somewhere, not even on my way back from the table read. I called them with one very specific question. I was like, “I really, really need you to tell me what this is.” And they were like, “Okay, fine,” and they eventually relented. I managed to get it out of them. But I was as in the dark like everybody else. 

When you’re walking out into the military base at the end of episode four, there’s such a terrifying confidence to Vecna. You’ve bested the group, taken the kids and there’s this bravado about you. It’s fascinating to think underneath that, you as an actor are having major questions about the character. It’s almost a mirrored image.

It is, and it isn’t, because we talk about coincidences artistically. There were things that would happen while we were shooting [season] five that allowed me to get into that space. Those fears, all those insecurities, all those questions I have. There are definitely times and times on set where we’re working and all of that just falls away, and something happens and something else is there. Those are really powerful moments, and you just have to trust and let yourself go, and know that what you’re doing is right.

Do you have a specific example of something like that happening here in five? 

Yes. That end of the first block of episodes, what you just mentioned. I’d been asking myself all these questions. “What is this? What’s happening? Where does this come from? What is going on?” I walked out to shoot the scene — particularly that scene with Will at the very, very end — and this very strange thing happened where it was as if I was witnessing myself from outside of myself. I had a full bird’s eye perspective on what it was that I was doing. It sounds psychotic, but it felt like I was able to be just everywhere. 

Are you a meditator, by any chance?

I am.

Did you experience this on the other side of a meditation? It’s happened to me!

Well, it was meditative, but as you know, film sets are so non-conducive to a full meditative state. So it wasn’t quite that. It was just ethereal; otherworldly. That’s all I can say. Otherworldly. 

“Ethereal” is a fascinating word to use, because that makes me think of something dreamy. But I think of Vecna, especially in that scene, as a nightmare. But to be in character, you have to feel as though you’re on the precipice of making your dreams come true, even if they’re nightmares for everyone else.

Absolutely, you have to do that. For me, it is that thing of the end game. “What’s the goal here? What is it that I’m trying to achieve? How do I win?” Because ultimately, at the end of the day, all he’s trying to do is win. He wants what he wants, and I have to understand and know that’s what he wants, and how do achieve it. 

I’m curious if you ever saw the stage production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, and if so, if you had any conversations at any point with Louis McCartney, who played Henry on the West End and now on Broadway.

I’ve seen it twice now. I saw it in preview in London, and then on Broadway. When I went to the preview show in London, Sonia Friedman had produced it. I worked with Sonia at the Phoenix Theater years and years ago, which is the same theater that it’s playing at. I walked into that theater already in a heightened emotional state.

I see Sonia and burst into tears. The show starts, and I burst into even more tears. I’m standing outside in the interval. [Producer] Stephen Daldry comes up and says, “You should come up on stage for the bow.” I was like, “Really? I don’t know.” He insisted, so I went, and that was amazing. Afterwards, Louis and I had a really, really good conversation. Then I saw him subsequently in New York on Broadway and checked in to say, “How are you doing? This is a lot to carry. Please make sure that you’re looking after yourself.”

It’s a really intense performance. I saw it too, and I can’t imagine having to do that day in and day out. There’s probably one other person on earth who can share that experience with him, and it’s you.

For me, the mental gymnastics were very difficult. And of course, the physical gymnastics with regards to the [makeup] application time, and sorting through what it is that I’m doing and making sure I’m bringing the power I need to bring forwards. But Louis is fighting in this show all the time, and that’s a huge thing to take with you. He’s consistently straining himself. I worry for him because he’s young and I love him and he’s lovely. But I had asked myself a lot of questions when I was creating Henry in my mind about his childhood and the relationship dynamic he would’ve had with his parents.

Of course, we see in four that there’s this level of isolation. We see this level of suppression. But I also wanted to go deeper and think about the dynamic between his mother and his father, his primary caregivers. In the play, we very, very briefly see a moment where [his mom] hits Henry. It was at that moment that I was like, “Those are the things I’ve been considering and taking with me.” So to see that just felt like I had confirmed the things I thought I knew.

So, where is Vecna now? Is he still with you as you’re continuing the press tour? Or did you leave him behind when filming ended?

Yeah, he’s gone. I’ve been very fortunate this year to be working on another show, and that’s been a way to release it. Somebody took a photograph of me on my final day of set. I literally look like a man who’s just dropped the weight of the world. So yeah, he’s no longer with us in the room.

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Season five of Stranger Things will be released in three parts: Volume 1 (consisting of four episodes) is currently streaming on Netflix, Volume 2 releases on Christmas (three episodes) and The Finale on New Year’s Eve. Check out THR‘s season five coverage here.