‘Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp Breaks Down Filming Will’s Most Powerful Scene Yet in Vol 2 [Exclusive]

Noah Schnapp in 'Stranger Things' Season 4

This interview contains spoilers for Stranger Things 5, Volume 2.As Stranger Things enters its final chapters, few characters carry as much emotional history as Will Byers. Across five seasons, Will’s journey has unfolded quietly, often beneath the supernatural chaos of Hawkins, building toward moments that prioritize vulnerability over spectacle.

Episodes 5, 6, and especially 7 of Season 5 bring that arc to the forefront in a way that has been years in the making. In a recent conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub ahead of the latest batch of episodes for Stranger Things 5, Noah Schnapp reflected on the truth of the Upside Down coming into view, the pressure behind Will’s long-awaited coming out scene, the preparation that went into delivering it authentically, and what it has been like working with directors including the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, and Frank Darabont throughout the series’ run. Watching the Series Finale With Cast and Fans You should watch the series finale on the big screen. COLLIDER: Episodes 5, 6, and 7, I think fans are gonna love, especially 6 and 7. They're just fantastic. A bunch of questions. Where are you planning on watching the series finale? Are you planning on doing something? NOAH SCHNAPP: I am. I'm gonna watch with the cast. We have a group screening planned this week. And then I'm gonna watch, of course, have to go to the theaters and experience it with the fans. So I got 10 tickets for friends and family, and we're gonna watch it on New Year's.SCHNAPP: Yeah, you got to do that. Learning the Truth About the Upside Down The truth was a mystery until the end. So I definitely have to ask you, when did the Duffers actually tell you the history of the Upside Down and how it connects to the abyss? When did they pull back the curtain and really tell you everything? SCHNAPP: They didn't. People always ask if the Duffers sat us down and explained, it's really… We kind of just find out through the table reads and the scripts, and they're pretty lock and key about how everything unfolds. But it was fun to get to read 7 and 8 specifically and really start to understand what this all has been. Filming Will’s Coming Out Scene in Episode 7 "I want it to be like one of the greats of the coming-out scenes in media." Episode 7 has one of the biggest scenes, and it involves no action. It is you telling your friends and family that you don't like girls. And it's just such a fucking perfect scene. And I think it's just so important, that scene, because of how many people around the world are gonna watch this. And the meaning, so many people are gonna be affected by it. So can you sort of talk about filming that scene and maybe the pressure you put on yourself to make sure that it was just perfect? SCHNAPP: Yeah, no, so much pressure. Like I'd never felt before. I mean, holy shit. Like this scene, I mean, it's been burning and slow burning and leading up to it since the very first episode of the show. And I mean, I remember in Seasons 3 and 4, wondering like, “Are they ever gonna write it? How are they gonna write it?” And then we got here to Season 5, and they did write it, and they wrote it, not just with Will and Joyce, but with the entire cast standing there, listening to it. So to add on to the pressure, it was everyone watching me do it. It felt almost like a play where I had to perform in front of this audience. It was so nerve wracking. And, of course, there's the pressure of, like… This is actually gonna impact so many real people, so many young Wills out there who are struggling themselves. And you want it to be so perfect to make sure it's good for them and so empowering. And this is gonna live on for so long. Hopefully, I want it to be like one of the greats of the coming-out scenes in media. So a lot of pressure there. Related ‘Stranger Things’ Just Topped Its Best Scene With Season 5 Vol. 1’s Game-Changing Ending This scene just changed everything. Posts By Jennie Richardson Preparing for the Scene as an Actor Preparation for one of the series' heaviest scenes became like a ritual to Schnapp. How early on were you sort of preparing for that scene as an actor? How early did you have the dialogue? How early were you sort of breaking down the emotions of trying to figure it out? SCHNAPP: Well, they didn't…Through the whole year we had one through 6 and 7 and 8 weren't written yet. The second I got my hands on 7, which was that it was in that episode. I was gonna start preparing, and we got it in like I would want to say, like mid-summer, and we filmed. I filmed the scene in like October, so yeah, the second I got it, I remember talking to Maya and she was telling me, “It's not about how well you know it, it's about how long you've known it, and if you know it for so much time, it just it doesn't leave you,” and I still know the monologue today because I just spent so much time with it. Every morning, every night, I would read it out loud three or four times just as a ritual to just ingrain it in me so that when I got to the day, I didn't want to spend a second of my energy thinking about a line, I wanted to just live in it. And it allowed me to do that because I had prepared so much for it more than I've ever done for anything. Working With the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, and Frank Darabont Even with their different approaches, all the Stranger Things directors are "all good." Talk a little bit about working with the Duffers. I'm actually curious, you've worked with some amazing directors making the show, but how is Frank Darabont different from Shawn Levy and different from the Duffers? They have similarities. SCHNAPP: Yeah, the four of them, it’s actually interesting working with the different directors and understanding how everyone has different approaches to it, and they're all good. I would say Shawn is the most actors' director. He puts himself in the shoes of the actor before any other department and says, “How can we make sure that the actor is best supported?” I would say the Duffers are the most collaborative. They just focus more on exploring and trying different things and there's no kind of stickiness to a script. It's just kind of like, “Well, what if we did this? What if we do that?” And you feel comfortable because they take so much time with everything. There's no rush with it with the Duffers. People are like, “Oh my god, we're doing another take,” but it's nice as an actor to know I have so much time and runway to try things because they're not gonna do it in two takes. Subscribe to our newsletter for Stranger Things deep dives Want to understand the scene's impact? Subscribe to our newsletter for in-depth coverage of Stranger Things and related TV culture, with scene breakdowns, actor interviews, director perspectives, and analysis that clarifies moments like Will's arc. Subscribe Subscribe to our newsletter for Stranger Things deep dives Want to understand the scene's impact? Subscribe to our newsletter for in-depth coverage of Stranger Things and related TV culture, with scene breakdowns, actor interviews, director perspectives, and analysis that clarifies moments like Will's arc. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. And then the opposite with Frank, which is so fun. He doesn't do a hundred takes, he does like three to five, and it's not like we're just running through it and trying all these different things. It's like whatever comes naturally, instinctively, is what ends up happening and going on screens. So it was fun to kind of just really think on your feet and not sit with things too long with him. Acting the Supernatural and Finding Physicality "There were no rules or guidelines." And I am so curious, when you're acting, and you're in that in his mind, and you're taking over, how much are you sort of looking at what Millie has done? I mean, like other movies and stuff, to sort of generate the performance, and how much are you sort of just saying,"I'm using my imagination and having some fun"? SCHNAPP: Yeah, like the supernatural stuff, it was a lot of imagination. That was what was so fun. There were no rules or guidelines, like with the dialogue and emotional stuff. I would try to pull as much from myself as I could, but you can't do that with powers and demo vision. There's no real-life equivalent. So, working with animals, I did a lot like channeling a gorilla when I was in the powers and just, yeah, workshopping and trying different things. I watched the Harry Potter movies again to kind of understand the similarities there and see if I could pull anything from that, and I tried to make sure that the powers, the physicality of it was different than Eleven’s because they come differently. So just getting to play with it through the year was a lot of fun. Stranger Things Like TV-14 Drama Mystery Horror Science Fiction Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock 7 Images Close Cast See All Genres Drama, Mystery, Horror, Science Fiction Creator Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Powered by Expand Collapse

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