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“Stranger Things 4”: Actor Jamie Campbell Bower on Vecna’s Physicality and Desire for Revenge [Interview]

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Jamie Campbell Bower

This article contains some spoilers for “Stranger Things 4.”

Season Four of “Stranger Things” introduced a unique villain from the Upside Down in Vecna. Volume I revealed that the Mind Flayer’s general originated as family-murderer Henry Creel, who was then renamed One (001) under Dr. Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) care. It was there that One met Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), sending them both on a collision course that would spark the entire series’ dangerous encounters with the Upside Down and transform One into the imposing Vecna.

Bloody Disgusting spoke with Vecna/One actor Jamie Campbell Bower in a roundtable chat after Volume 2’s release, learning more about the actor’s process in creating the villain and where Vecna’s headspace is heading into the final installment.

Special makeup effects designer Barrie Gower previously revealed the extensive, painstaking makeup application for Vecna. When asked how Bower developed Vecna’s physicality and movement and whether the heavy prosthetics informed it, Bower explained his equally extensive process.

“The physicality came quite early as I was prepping for Vecna. As far as I remember, we did a makeup test. We did the first cast for the suit sometime in the beginning of 2020, and at that point, I saw some 3D renders that Barry had gotten. I’d seen some before from Matt and Ross [Duffer], but it was all starting to click and come together. So, the first thing Barry showed me was the animatronic hand, and how that would move, just the physicality of the movement itself was something, the practicality of that.”

“When it obviously wasn’t on, I sat there, looked at my hand, and imagined my fingers coming out to here, extending upwards, so I would just sit there, stare, and feel that space a little more. Then, of course, obviously came the head, and there’s probably about that much more on top of my head,” Bower gestures inches above his head, “because it’s quite thick. Maybe not that much, but a bit more, so there’s a height difference as well, so it was about pushing the top of my skull up through the top of the prosthetic piece.”

The walk was something that I was always very interested in, how I would hold myself and move my fingers as I was walking. I spent a lot of time walking around downtown Los Angeles, literally walking around very slowly and moving my fingers. And a stillness as well, a stillness for me was something that I found was very grounding, and I always saw Vecna and Henry as this very grounded character. He’s not wild. Although there could be moments of him exploding, I was always like, ‘No, no, he’s very, very centered,’ so it was just about making sure that I would place my feet in the right way, pushing the energy out of my own body through the prosthetic and then out of that as well.”

“You might have seen this mentioned before, but you know, for instance, the Mind Flayer set was ginormous. That was a stage, and then, we had all the green screen around, so I saw that set, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to keep pushing this out. I’ve got to keep going,’ and then, of course, also the prosthetics on the face. So, it’s about being grounded, understanding how my arm will move, how my head moves, and then overemphasizing the face so that it comes through the prosthetic, which is not natural. I would naturally try to be less rather than more, so it was a whole thing. It was just a whole thing.”

Jamie Campbell Bower stranger things

Time passes for Henry/Vecna once Eleven sends him to his doom in the Upside Down, allowing for his complete transformation from a human into a monster. Because much of that journey is off-screen, we asked Jamie Campbell Bower whether there were any discussions about what happened in that period or if the actor created his own backstory.

Bower explained that he approached this more intuitively and emotionally rather than narratively. “I think it was about building on that feeling of being isolated and sitting in that hatred. We see what he does with the Mind Flayer and how that all works, and I saw it as another opportunity for him in the same way that when he was a child being sat there with his spiders on his own. He sat there in a different location on his own, feeling the same way, dying to get out, dying to win, dying to be heard.”               

“The thought process that I would often write down or that I would say to myself over and over again is, ‘You took everything from me. Now I’m going to take everything from you,’ and that is very much linked to the sensitivity that I felt like he was carrying through that period, but in terms of did he ever sit down every now and again and like a good cry, I never really went there as it were. It was more the emotional side of being isolated, and I don’t know if that comes from personal experience of being isolated, of feeling isolated. Time can be a very interesting thing, I think, when you’re in those places, or particularly for me, not you, but for me, time can pass quite quickly, and days and nights don’t seem to mean anything. They just become a bit of a blur, so I think maybe I was drawing on my own personal experience from that, and maybe that’s why it ended up being the way it was for me.”

Jamie Campbell Bower Vecna

“Stranger Things 4” ended on a foreboding note. Eleven won her fight against Vecna but didn’t wholly thwart his plans. Nor did she destroy the villain. Jamie Campbell Bower grins as he warns us about Vecna’s state of mind heading into season five; he’s out for revenge.

“He’s pissed. If you thought he wasn’t pissed before, he’s pissed now. Yeah, the vengeance, if it were me, on a personal level, if somebody did that to me, I’m coming for you.” 

“Stranger Things 4” is available on Netflix now.

vecna monster

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Interviews

‘Immaculate’ Director Michael Mohan on Religious Horror and Why You Can’t Pull Punches [Halloweenies Podcast]

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Immaculate SXSW Horror

This weekend, Neon is releasing its highly anticipated new slice of horror Immaculate. Directed by Michael Mohan, Sydney Sweeney stars as an American nun named Cecilia who joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. What begins as a warm welcome quickly devolves into a living nightmare as Cecilia discovers her new home harbors a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors. You can see it with a crowd this Friday.

In anticipation, Halloweenies co-host/executive producer Michael Roffman sits down with director Michael Mohan to discuss how he approached making his first horror film. Together, the two chat about the effects of religious horror in 2024, Sweeney’s Scream Queen magic, the ending everyone’s going to be talking about, and why Horror needs zero rules. He also offers some choice Horror recommendations.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, and this past year’s Chucky! This year? The Alien franchise.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, Jaws), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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