Posted in: Netflix, streaming, TV | Tagged: caleb mclaughlin, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Sadie Sink, stranger things

Stranger Things 4: Caleb McLaughlin on Lucas' Struggle in Two Worlds

Published Fri, 08 Jul 2022 07:17:11 -0500

Everyone's adolescence is shaped differently in the world of Stranger Things. For Caleb McLaughlin's Lucas Sinclair, it was the futile attempt trying to live in two worlds from his association with his best friends Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and their Dungeons & Dragons-oriented Hellfire Club and trying to gain mainstream acceptance from his other peers by joining the basketball team. Unfortunately for Lucas, he largely is a benchwarmer and whatever that developed between him and Max (Sadie Sink) at the end of season three, fizzled at the start of season four. McLaughlin opened up about Lucas' highlights and lowlights of the season including his heartbreaking moment at the season finale. This is your obvious major spoilers warning.

In the season four finale "The Piggyback", the Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) managed to get his fourth and final victim Max into his grasp. Whether he was successful is left up in the air as Max was left largely in a similar heap that his three previous slain victims with their limbs contorted. She was still alive but left in a coma still with milky eyes by season's end and the boundary cracked between the Upside-Down and Hawkins. "I didn't even know we were doing the death scene that day. So, I just had to understand my feelings and my place in the scene. I knew my lines and what I saw prior to what was happening," McLaughlin said. "I don't really like to rehearse scenes like that because I want my natural reaction. I want to be real and raw, in the moment. So, I went off the cuff, just went for it. Of course, as we did more takes, it got better and felt more real. And it helped that [Matt and Ross Duffer] allowed me to improv and catch the energy of the scene."

As far as how many takes McLaughlin and Sink took, "A lot. [Laughs] They did close-ups on me and then close-ups on Sadie and then wide angles of us together. And each time, I really had to keep the emotion of the scene. And then, two weeks later, we had to do it again because Millie [Bobby Brown] had to be in the scene for The Void. And we were in the cold water — such cold water — and I had to cry again. It was really exhausting, but it was great." When Max thought death was imminent, she wrote a series of letters to all her loved ones during the events of Volume I, "You'd have to ask Sadie about that letter to Lucas, but Lucas would write a long paragraph about how much happiness is there and that you're the reason why I'm happy. He'd talk about how much he appreciates her and how much she makes him happy."

Given the popularity of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", the song's become a bit of an earworm for McLaughlin. "Oh, my gosh. I didn't know what was going to be playing and Sadie told me 'Kate Bush.' And I was like, 'Cool. Who's that?' And she played a little bit of it. And I was like, 'It sounds cool. She's got a great voice.' And now I know that song word-for-word. (Laughs.)" The actor broke down Lucas' social struggle. "Lucas wanted to try something different, walk a new path. And I don't think he was avoiding his friends," he explained. "Some people said he just wanted to be with the jocks, and it was like, 'No, maybe things could be easier for all of them, maybe people wouldn't make fun of them, and then he can bring his friends with him to them.' But then he realized, 'Maybe it's not as easy as I think.' It's not that he didn't love being around them, he didn't like being a nerd. I rewatched season one recently and was like, 'Wow. The bullies really made fun of them, and not even for being nerds, but for being themselves, for how they physically looked.' I mean, there's only so much you can take, and I felt that Lucas' only way to kind of cope with it was to try something different. And I admire that in him." For more on McLaughlin talking about how much Lucas had to do comparing from his start in season one to season four, his chemistry with co-star Priah Ferguson who plays his sister Erica, and if there's anything he can say about the final season, you can check out the whole Hollywood Reporter interview here.

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