Jamie Campbell Bower starred as serial killer Vecna in recently released season of Stranger Things. Stranger Things season 4 episode 7 ended on a cliffhanger while revealing truth about the new villain Vecna. Meanwhile, recently, Jamie Campbell Bower opened up about portraying the supernatural serial killer, Vecna, who casts spells on his enemies, on Stranger Things.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor recalled going into an audition with no information about the roles or series he was trying to land. Rather than reading a copy of a script from the Netflix drama, he was given two scenes, one from the 1996 legal thriller Primal Fear, and the other from Hellraiser to perform. The star recalled, “Then for the recall, they sent me some dummy sides from the show, at which point there was a little bit more information about the character, but not loads.”
The actor added, “[The scene] was actually what ended up being the Chrissy kill.” After the fateful audition, Campbell Bower said he ‘was called into a meeting with Matt and Ross Duffer,’ the creators and executive producers of Stranger Things. After having ‘a getting-to-know-one-another conversation,’ Campbell Bower showed the brothers a ‘mind map’ he created to get into his character. Upon seeing his book of photos, they replied, ‘Have you read the script? This is literally perfect.’
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Campbell Bower also offered some intel about what the role entailed, including the more than seven hours of makeup and prosthetics to transform into his role. “When the costume was on, it was about applying those sensitivities that I created in my mind. The hand is this amazing thing that has all these metal wires in it, so the fingers become quite dextrous,” he noted. Additionally, getting his voice and walking exactly right took a lot of trial and error.
Campbell Bower also pointed out that since the ‘suit comes over the ears and the ear holes are very, very tiny’ it was ‘quite difficult,’ to hear himself in it. This week, Campbell Bower told Variety that he ‘came in character’ and would sit ‘in the makeup chair very still, not really talking to anyone.’ ‘Music is a big help for me. I find it to be a very visceral experience,’ he recalled.