Gaten Matarazzo is ready to leave Dustin Henderson behind, but he knows breaking out of the mould that made him famous is easier said than done.
The 23-year-old played the loveable science whiz across all five seasons of the Netflix phenomenon Stranger Things over the course of a decade.
The actor spoke candidly to Us Weekly while promoting his new stoner comedy Pizza Movie about the challenge of typecasting that awaits him on the other side of one of the biggest shows in television history.
“I would love to jump into something starkly different [after Stranger Things], but there is a tug of war there,” he said.
“Because when you play a part for so long, it’s very easy for people who are making new projects that you will go out for, for them to say, ‘I see what you’ve done, so I know that your capabilities fall into line with an idea that I have.'”
He was measured about the reality of it.
“I don’t blame anybody for going into audition rooms and saying, ‘Oh, this is very similar to [your character] Dustin or to Stranger Things. That’s a very reasonable, understandable segue. It’s [just] not something that I’m necessarily very interested in.”
At the same time, Matarazzo was quick to acknowledge how unusual his position is.
In an industry where most actors spend years fighting for any role at all, he has the luxury of being selective.
“It’s such a competitive industry. I’m in a very privileged, very lucky situation where after working on something as successful as Stranger Things, I can say what I’m interested in doing. I can make decisions based on what feels good for me. I’m very lucky to be in that situation.”
Pizza Movie, which marks a deliberate step in a different direction, is his latest bid to show audiences what else he can do.
