WARNING: The following contains FULL SPOILERS for Season 4 of Stranger Things, Part 2, which is now airing on Netflix. For spoiler-free Stranger Things coverage, see our Part 2 review.
When season 4 of Stranger Things, part 1, debuted, Jamie Campbell Bower, the actor behind Vecna / Henry / One, sat down with IGN and revealed that Eleven actress Millie Bobby Brown burst into tears upon seeing him in Vecna’s attire.
Even so, at the time, he had to be shy about it, as on the show, the Eleven and the Vecna had not yet clashed. Now that Part 2 is out, Bower chatted again with IGN and revealed that it was just before the big showdown of Vecna and Eleven in the Mind Lair that Brown cried in front of the creepy costume, and the production decided follow it.
“This is the day I’ve been talking about,” he says. “And his reaction, what you see on camera, is more or less what the day was like.”
“She saw me, burst into tears and then [cinematographer Caleb Heymann] he turned to everyone and said, “Now we should film Mills.” And everyone said, “absolutely.” You just have to configure it, let’s go ‘”, he continues. “And I gave it space, I gave it distance, because when a reaction like this occurs, it is so important that it is maintained. So I gave her distance and let her know it was me when we were moving forward, and I think that made her a lot more comfortable … And bless her, she absolutely carried it. “
This scene is one of the few greats for Vecna at the end of the season, which also sees him finally face Eleven at the beginning of this episode and later set on fire by Nancy, Steve and Robin while he is distracted to the Cau de la ment.
And since so many of Vecna are practical effects – he previously told IGN that it takes seven and a half hours to put on full costumes and prostheses – we felt we had to ask him if he was really on fire while Vecna It was burning. It wasn’t, of course, but pretty much the rest of that scene, which he sees Vecna shot and thrown out the window, was mostly real.
“The fire itself is digital, but as for Nance giving Vecna the ‘ol shotgun in the face, [actress] Natalia [Dyer] i was there with the gun, and i’m reacting to her explosions and then just figuring out the movements to try to reach her and then they shot me out the window. So most, if not all you see, is there physically, but the fire is not. The fire element is the only thing we couldn’t do, just because, in reality, I imagine that given the nature of the prosthetic piece itself, that thing would have burned. It would have dissolved in the skin. It’s not fun. It’s not even worth it. “
Vecna’s fiery defeat (or so it seems) wasn’t his only brush with the elements. A flashback at the end shows Henry upside down after his first fight with the Eleven, not yet completely Vecna, but still damaged by the powers of Eleven and the lighting that impacted him in his descent. It’s another look of makeup crafted for Bower, one that shows Henry before he’s completely in Vecna mode, but still definitely damaged. Fortunately, she believes this look only took four or five hours to prepare, a relative breeze compared to Vecna’s dress.
“When Eleven throws Henry upside down, there’s this kind of electrocution that occurs, this burning and melting of the skin,” he says. “A lot of the wounds you’ll see in this mode are based on the idea of the fusion of electricity and fire itself, in fact … But I really enjoyed that day, because what I can do in this scene it’s more than great. ”
“When Eleven throws Henry upside down, there is this kind of electrocution that occurs, this burning, melting of the skin.
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As for where we left off in Vecna, he physically disappears after being shot out the window by Nancy. However, the show makes it clear that we haven’t seen the last of it; in the end, Will tells Mike that he can still feel him alive, suffering.
Bower is still a mother on whether she will return for season 5, not surprisingly. But he’s watched the social media conversation around his character, and yes, he’s even seen some of the memes, including one that was born out of a Netflix time lapse that he has it in Vecna’s suit, casually sipping an iced coffee, that the internet has caught on and with which he has run.
“I’ve seen it,” he laughs. “It’s funny, you know, that was towards the end of filming, and we had obviously gotten into that flow and Vanity Fair has a pre-process video [where] We are all sitting in silence, reading a book. And so, you know, it makes me laugh. People say it humanizes me in an interesting way, and I will take it on. If it humanizes me, it’s fine, I’m great with that. “