Entertainment

'Stranger Things' star Jamie Campbell Bower said Millie Bobby Brown burst into tears when she saw him as Vecna

Jamie Campbell Bower in a brown hat and black sweater; Millie Bobby Brown in a black one-shoulder dress
Jamie Campbell Bower at "The Black Phone" Los Angeles premiere; Millie Bobby Brown attends "Stranger Things" season 4 New York premiere. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images
Read in app

"Stranger Things" season 4 star Jamie Campbell Bower told Variety that Millie Bobby Brown cried when she saw him on set in his character's frightening makeup and prosthetics.

In a video interview shared Friday, Bower spoke to the show's prosthetic makeup designer Barrie Gower and Variety's Jazz Tangay about the reaction to his character Vecna, the main villain of the fourth season. He explained that Brown was put in a position where she was tied up before meeting Vecna for the first time, leading to an "electric" response.

"I walked up to her [as Vecna] and she burst into tears. She wouldn't look at me and she was visibly just disgusted by the whole thing," Bower said.

A humanoid creature with gray skin kneels in an attic.
Vecna is the villain of "Stranger Things 4."  Netflix

The actor also shared his take on Brown as her character Eleven, adding that the actress is "so receptive and honest and open and child-like" in the role that "anything that is meant to be scary and should be scary feels terrifying for her."

Bower and Gower told Tangay that even though it may seem "dark," they knew they had something special after Brown's first take. Gower said he hoped the take made it into the show because Brown's reaction was so genuine.

After Brown cried, Bower said she realized it was him under the makeup and prosthetics when she smelled the scent of his cigarettes.

In a video posted to the official "Stranger Things" Instagram account on June 15, Gower and his team showed how they applied head-to-toe prosthetics to the actor for the hit Netflix series. Bower told The Hollywood Reporter that the process took about seven and a half hours, with an additional hour or so needed to remove everything at the end of the day.

A post shared by Stranger Things Netflix (@strangerthingstv)

 

Insider's Kim Renfro reports that Gower also used his prosthetic skills for massive projects like HBO's "Game of Thrones," for which he did all the practical effects for the Night King and White Walkers.

The final two episodes of "Stranger Things" season 4 are available to stream on Netflix.

Read next

Gabi Stevenson is a junior reporter with Insider's weekend life team. Before joining Insider as a fellow in January 2022, she worked as a freelancer covering local news in Pennsylvania and writing greeting cards for American Greetings. She graduated from Penn State University's print and digital journalism program in 2019. During her time at Penn State, she served as an editor at Onward State, the nation's most-followed student news outlet.