Steven Prusakowski
They always say you cannot love someone else unless you learn to love yourself. That is kind of how Jamie Campbell Bower approached playing the villain of Stranger Things‘ epic final season. As he discussed as my guest on the TV Topics podcast, he needed to find a way to love Vecna and Henry even with all the horrific actions the character commits. And when he did, something incredible happened. The audience “loved” him too. Maybe love is taking it a step too far, but we empathized with him, we felt saddened by him, and more than anything we rooted for him to find that happy ending that never seemed to be in the cards.
It is pretty rare for a villain to become beloved, especially one as vicious and violent as Vecna in Netflix’s mega-hit series Stranger Things. The finale, which aired across the New Year’s holiday, gave Netflix its most-viewed New Year’s Day ever with millions watching globally in living rooms, watch parties, and theaters. While fans were anticipating an interdimensional fight for the fate of humanity, heroics from the ragtag band of outcasts and misfits, and plenty of chills, few expected to be as moved as they were, not by the heroes, but by the villain.
This unexpected emotional connection with the villain is thanks to the impressive work of Jamie Campbell Bower, who played several versions of the main antagonist: Vecna, the vine-covered mass of former humanity that haunted and killed the residents of Hawkins from the Upside Down; Henry Creel, the lonely and troubled young boy who suffered a painful childhood filled with isolation and a terrifying gift; and Mr. Whatsit, the creepy Pied Piper-esque man in the hat who lures children to their doom using a front of kindness to conceal his darker plans. (Listen to the full conversation below.)
To play a character many would define as a monster of sorts, Bower searched for the humanity in the complex, broken character. “I think with any character, particularly as I’ve grown as an artist, you start to approach things in a more cerebral way. My real first way in with Henry was to consider his upbringing, his family dynamic,” explained Bower. “This idea of isolation, about the idea of loneliness, it was about this idea of this person losing that innocence and that community and that sense of belonging. It was something I spent so long thinking about because I needed to build up every mental picture that I could in my mind so that when I was in that room for season 4 and for season 5, the things that I was saying felt honest and felt real to me.”
Much of who Henry is and transforms revolves around a moment in the cave, his origin story of sorts, but the roots of who he was were planted long before according to Bower.
“In my mind he’s this young isolated boy who goes exploring… this idea of exploration and finding this cave and being inquisitive and then all of a sudden his curiosity leads him into this situation where his life is irrevocably changed. That was really important to me and that’s really paramount in that scene in the cave with Will,” shared Bower. When Will is saying to him, ‘You can defeat this thing,’ and he’s saying, ‘No, you don’t understand.’ Henry’s basically saying it gave me a sense of control. It gave me a sense of hope. It gave me a sense of belonging in a world I did not feel I belonged to. And it gave me security.”
The ability to connect with Henry was not an easy task, even for Bower. It was a challenge for him to find a way for the character to be redeemed. “I spent a long time in season 5 feeling quite heartless. But then at the end when he is truly confronted by that memory… this trauma is blocked off,” revealed Bower. “So when he was confronted by that, I was like, ‘Oh, I can love him again. Like, I can hold him again.’ I felt like I got my redemption arc. I felt like I could hold him and I could feel him again. And the humanity was more on display and his pain was there. That was for me the redemption that I needed and the closure that I needed.”
Jamie spoke much more about his work on Stranger Things and as an actor, plus about the television that influences him during our TV Topics conversation. The actor grew up with limited screen time but developed a love for bold, atmospheric storytelling and is still quite selective about what he watches. He was instantly hooked by the first three seasons of Penny Dreadful, calling it exactly his world of gothic, folklore, and vampiric tales also spoke fondly of Sex and the City as a personal comfort show.
Most importantly he shares an answer to the classic TV Topics questions about what TV character’s death he would stop. Bower’s answer was Henry, not surprising. What was surprising was the dark places Bower saving him would lead. (Insert maniacal laugh).
Be sure to check out the full interview with Jamie on Spotify or Apple Podcasts… or in the links below. And if you have not already, watch his incredible work on Stranger Things, streaming on Netflix.
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