Stranger Things’ star went to therapy after starring role
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Jamie Campbell Bower is looking forward to taking a break from the Upside Down.
The actor, 36, joined “Stranger Things” in Season 4 as Vecna and got candid at MegaCon Orlando on Feb. 9 about taking a break from playing villains.
While on a panel, Bower explained that although he’s not worried about being typecast as a villain, he wants to step back from the archetype.
“It’s funny. I was talking to my therapist the other day,” he recalled. “We were going through some stuff, and he was like, ‘We really need to make sure that you carve out time for you whenever you’re working next.’ I turned around to him, and I was like, ‘Yeah, to be honest with you, man, I just don’t think I’ll be doing another bad guy for a minute.”
“The Mortal Instruments” star assured the crowd that he was “dead serious” about the therapy session, stating, “I’m not lying.”
Bower, who also sat through eight hours of special effects makeup applications for the role, added, “Like it f–ks me up. I’m dead serious.”
But the Netflix vet shared that he was still grateful for being part of the iconic horror series.
“It’s been amazing, and it’s been an incredible journey, to join the show from Season 4, to be part of something that so many people love and something that I loved as well and still love. But I definitely am ready to hang up the foam latex and wish him a slippery farewell,” Bower said.
Season 5 is set to follow the residents of Hawkins who are caught up in the mysteries surrounding the Upside Down, including facing Vecna once and for all.
A release date has yet to be announced for the final season, but creators and executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer (aka The Duffer Brothers) recently compared this installment to making “eight blockbuster movies.”
SEASON 2. PICTURED: Dacre Montgomery. Courtesy Netflix
“We think it’s our most personal story,” Matt told Deadline in January. “It was super intense and emotional to film — for us and for our actors. We’ve been making this show together for almost 10 years. There was a lot of crying. There was so much crying. The show means so much to all of us, and everyone put their hearts and souls into it. And we hope — and believe — that passion will translate to the screen.”
But just last month, Netflix dropped a chilling clue about the upcoming season, posting a missing person’s poster featuring a picture of Jane “Eleven” Hopper on their official Instagram account.
The poster teases, “Last seen wearing a hooded jacket walking in the vicinity of Hawkins High School on June 13, 1986.”
The date on the poster is only a few months after the March 1986 setting of the fourth season. As Netflix previously confirmed in a November teaser, Season 5 takes place in the fall of 1987, a year after the date of Eleven’s disappearance.
The streaming platform captioned the eery Instagram post, “Who’s *really* looking for Jane Hopper? You’re not ready for what’s to come in ‘Stranger Things’ 5.”