Every great television show starts with a pitch-perfect cast. And now that the world has binged the show's second season, the stars of Netflix's Stranger Things are icons in their own right. While Winona Ryder and David Harbour are amazing, it's the young cast that has really captured our hearts. But they never could never have done so if not for their amazing Stranger Things audition tapes.
The Netflix series' aftershow, Beyond Stranger Things, has finally revealed how stars Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) and Noah Schnapp (Will) scored their roles on the sci-fi series.
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The "viewing party" took place around a Dungeons and Dragons board with Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers, host Jim Rash, producer Shawn Levy, and actors Brown and Wolfhard. Keeping to the nostalgic aesthetic, the gang viewed the original audition tapes on a very '80s TV.
Naturally, the real-life Eleven and Mike promptly freaked out over their early performances of their Hawkins' characters.
"Look how depressed I look!," exclaimed Brown as she watches a teary clip of herself channeling Eleven.
"You look like Susan Sarandon," Wolfhard replied.
These audition tapes may seem pretty standard (if seriously impressive), but one person who went beyond the call of duty to audition for the Netflix series? Dacre Montgomery, who joined the cast as bully Billy in season 2. In an interview with Refinery29, Montgomery revealed exactly how he nabbed the coveted role:
"I made a little short film, with an opening score and title credits and I read both of the scenes I was given...I danced in a g-string to 'Hungry Like The Wolf' [by Duran Duran]...I'm a fan of going against the grain. That audition could have gone one of two ways. I could have never worked in this industry again, but someone, somewhere, saw something."