Jamie Campbell Bower (as Vecna): [sinister voice] Fred.

[suspenseful music playing]

[guttural growling, Fred Benson whimpers] 

Logan Riley Bruner (who plays Fred Benson): That is horrifying.

[laughter]

[eerie music playing]

[wet squelching, thunder rumbles]

[GFX: Becoming Vecna]

[footsteps approaching]

Jamie Campbell Bower: Are we ready?

[floorboards creak] 

Jamie Campbell Bower: When I got the audition through for the show, I was given two sets of sides. One was from “Primal Fear,” and the other set of sides was from “Hellraiser.” And then, like, the second week of January, they're like, "Oh, Matt and Ross want to meet you." I was like, "Oh my God, amazing." I didn't speak, throughout the whole meeting, which is quite unusual for me 'cause I can be quite a chatterbox. 

Ross Duffer: We've been talking about it since Season 1 that we wanted a villain that could actually speak to our characters, that could sort of vocalize their motives and their thoughts, and also to get into our characters’ heads.

[CLIP] Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower): It is time, Max. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: They just told me about the character, and they kept on saying, "Oh, we love your voice." I was thinking, "What do you mean you love my voice?" It's just how I talk. And then, at the end, they showed me what they were sort of designing the monster side of Henry as Vecna. And I just-- My mouth fell to the floor. And I remember leaving the house and just, like, being like… "That was so cool." [laughing] Like, "That was so awesome." From what I knew of the character at that point, I had already felt so invested. So, when they were like,  "Hey, you got it," I was like, "Oh my God." There was, like, a sigh of relief. It was, like, tears. It was a big deal. And then, from there on in, I was put into the room with Barrie Gower, and Barrie and Duncan were designing Vecna.

[eerie music playing] 

Barrie Gower: My name is Barrie Gower, and I'm the prosthetics designer for ‘Stranger Things,’ Season 4, Vecna, it's a really fascinating character. He's humanoid, but, we are basically integrating lots of shapes and textures and forms from the Upside Down. So there's a lot of kind of roots and vine. And we still have panels of flesh which are very pale, almost anemic-looking. And the idea, really, is that the exposed flesh that is pale is human skin that hasn't seen sunlight for the last 20 years.

Crew Member: It's so surreal. 

Barrie Gower: Once we had a life cast of Jamie, basically, we want all the appliances. Rather than having a rubber monster suit, we were designing it as kind of a jigsaw puzzle, which gives us a lot more fluid sort of movements. We don't have much buckling, and we have a really skin-tight look. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: [in costume] Well, I’m in love.

[ominous music playing]

Jamie Campbell Bower: The first thing that I started to think about was the physicality of this person. I knew that we were gonna have these long fingers. And just move my fingers around really slow. I'm moving them fast now 'cause I'm excited. But move my fingers around very slowly. But then imagine them kind of being out here like this.

[Jamie growls] 

Barrie Gower: Matt and Ross were very clear that they wanted this large, distorted hand. When we started exploring the character, looking at the design of it, we were quite confident that we could do something practical, um, by using mechanical finger extensions to extend Jamie's fingers eight to 10 inches. So, they are aluminium-jointed finger extensions, and then it's a foam latex skin on the outside which gives quite a nice smooth, organic sort of feel. As a practical effects department, we tend to work very closely with digital effects. A lot of the best effects achieved now in TV and film are a combination of the two. In the long run, I think once we get through to the finished product, there will be a combination of practical and digital elements.

Jamie Campbell Bower: [in costume] Barrie, I’m going to cry.

[laughter]

Jamie Campbell Bower: [in costume] With joy.

Barrie Gower: [laughter] Thank you, dude. [laughing] There he goes.

[Jamie speaking indistinctly]

[bats screeching, intense synth music playing]

[wet squelching] 

Gaten Matarazzo: Vecna is… ooh, chilling. Vecna understands us on a human level. And he understands us and our vulnerabilities and knows how to capitalize upon those to achieve exactly what he needs, and he will stop at nothing.

[CLIP] Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien): Mom? 

[CLIP] Laura Cunningham (Candice Rose): Just loosening this up for you, sweetheart. You're going to look… [voice distorts] …absolutely beautiful.

[low growl, Chrissy gasps] 

Sadie Sink: Vecna essentially is targeting people who are experiencing some kind of grief, or there's some troubles that are happening in their life so they're emotionally vulnerable and fragile. I mean, it's the first time we've seen a threat that's so human. 'Cause you've had the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer, but nothing quite like Vecna. 

Ross Duffer: This is really the first time since Season 1 that we're going back to the world of prosthetics where we're actually having someone in a suit performing on the stage. 

Joe Keery: Selfishly, as an actor, it's so incredibly helpful because it's something real to look at. And especially just his demeanor on set and his performance, and the amount of himself that he would bring after being in makeup for… I think eight hours every day. Two hours to maybe take it off. That's like a full work day for somebody. 

Sadie Sink: Being face to face with what is all practical effects, and that was all completely him, you feel so in the moment, which is such a… I felt like that was such a luxury. [I felt] put at ease to know that, I would actually have something to play off of, and someone as amazing as Jamie who's just so talented.

[CLIP] Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower): Your time is almost at an end.

[chimes]

[CLIP] Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink): Let go!

[chimes]

[Max grunts, pants]

Millie Bobby Brown: The first time I saw Vecna, it was really, really surreal because I was going into a rehearsal right after lunch,  and then you're in a food coma. And I walked on set and I saw him, and he snapped his neck and looked at me. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: And I'm there, and I'm fully in it. Like staring at people, grunting, growling. Like, pacing.

Millie Bobby Brown: And I looked at him, and I was like… "What is that?" I didn't know. I thought this was gonna be CGI. Like, I didn't know. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: Bless her, she burst into tears. 

Millie Bobby Brown: The whole rehearsal, I was crying. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: And she was like, "That's not Jamie!" And I'm crazy, so I was, like, talking to her inside my mind. "No, Jamie's dead." Like, "It's just Vecna."

[CLIP] Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower): It is over, Eleven. Your friends have lost. 

Millie Bobby Brown: Jamie had to give me a hug, 'cause I couldn't do the scene. So the fear was genuine.  Definitely very real. I didn't have to act. I was terrified. [laughs] 

Jamie Campbell Bower: You know, Vecna is not some sort of sea creature from the deep. This character is not chaos. This character is very sure, and certain, and attentive to everything that he's doing.

[CLIP] Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower): I saw a means to realize my potential. To become the predator I was always born to be. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: He felt like he was lied to as well as kind of ostracized from his family —isolated, alone. Combine all these things together with the rage that he feels, and all of a sudden, it's this catalyst for terrifying events.

[chimes]

[CLIP] Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower): Tell her… 

[CLIP] Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer): No!

[chimes]

[CLIP] Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower): …everything.

[intense music] 

[CLIP] Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer): No!

[Nancy gasps] 

[CLIP] Steve Harrington (Joe Keery): Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: When somebody is filled with so much rage and so much resentment, and he's been alone in that for a number of years, the human element's gone. He's just… He's now out for blood. He's now out for vengeance. 

[CLIP] Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower): Maybe we'll save that story for another day. It doesn't have a happy ending, I'm afraid. 

Jamie Campbell Bower: That's it?

Crew Member: Yeah, that's it.

Jamie Campbell Bower: Beautiful. I always feel like these things are like a school test. Did I pass? [laughing]

[’Stranger Things’ theme music plays]