This interview contains spoilers for the entire fourth season of ‘Stranger Things’.
The final episodes of the final season of ‘Stranger Things’, which debuted on Netflix on Friday, contain several tragic broadcasts. One of the most powerful was the parting between Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven and her “Daddy,” the white-haired mad scientist Dr. Martin Brenner, played by Hollywood veteran Matthew Modine.
Brenner, who helped Eleven hone her telekinetic powers at the infamous Hawkins National Laboratory, was the show’s main (human) villain until he was mauled by a Demogorgon at the end of Season 1. But he made a surprise return this season, and Modine brought his unique sense of intellectual menace to flashbacks that filled the origin stories for Eleven and the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), as well as a subplot where he forced Eleven to use her very special abilities. to learn again.
Brenner again encountered what appeared to be a violent ending, being shot multiple times by a sniper from a helicopter in the season’s penultimate episode. But is he gone for good?
Even Modine isn’t sure, he said in a recent phone interview, but he would like to come back one way or another. During the conversation, the star of critically acclaimed films like ‘Full Metal Jacket’, ‘Birdy’, ‘Married to the Mob’ and the groundbreaking HBO docudrama ‘And the Band Played On’ discussed how ‘Stranger Things’ changed his life and why. he hopes Brenner’s story isn’t over yet. These are edited excerpts from the interview.
As you’ve experienced yourself, characters who seem to die on “Stranger Things” often don’t. comes dr. Brenner back in season 5, which is expected to be the show’s last?
I sure don’t know. I would love to have the chance to come back. As far as I know, the Duffer brothers haven’t even started writing season 5, let alone filming it.
Do you think Dr. Brenner is a villain?
Well, that’s an interesting question. Ambition is such a complicated thing. The question I think you’re asking is, ‘Is Brenner capable of empathy and compassion? Did he like the numbers? Did he like Eleven?” There is no doubt that, as a performer, I wanted to imbue the character with that love and compassion for them. He didn’t just exploit them. He absolutely loved them.
Eleven excelled at what Brenner was trying to discover: this ability to have telekinetic powers. Brenner tries to understand the power of thought. Is it possible to manifest those things that you think? An interesting thing is that he encourages her to use her anger, which is where Elf’s power comes from. Almost every time she uses that power, it’s in a destructive way. I think that’s something fascinating that the Duffer brothers may explore in Season 5: the destructive power of our thoughts.
It sounds like you feel like there are still themes to unpack.
Absolute. I’d also say there’s something interesting that the Duffers put into the story: it’s never really explained how Brenner survived the Demogorgon. How come he survived Vecna too? The door hit him in the face and broke his nose, but he survived. Why didn’t he die with everyone else? And when Elf, after successfully regaining her power and blasting those guards into the air, tries to use the power against me, Brenner says, “You really didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” It leaves an opening, in my mind, that there may be more to Brenner than meets the eye.
How much of his backstory have you been told?
The only backstory I have is the one I created in my own mind to play the part.
The upside-down world of ‘strange things’
After a three-year wait, Netflix’s sci-fi series returns for a fourth season.
- Season 4 Guide: As in past seasons, this go-round is full of nods and Easter eggs to 70s and 80s pop culture. Here are the main highlights.
- Review: “Stranger Things” has gone from lovingly echoing 80s touchstones to diligently copying itself, our critic writes of the show’s fourth installment.
- The Duffer Brothers† The creators of “Stranger Things” seem to share a brain. But they could never lock themselves together in a writing shack.
- An athlete on the side: Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas on the show, is currently filming a LeBron James biopic. And he still finds time to beat on the tennis court.
Which one is?
I’m trying to understand what kind of degree Brenner would have. How did he get that job? How did he envision the job? When I received the script, Brenner was a bit like Peter Coyote in “ET” – I think they called that character Keys. He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt; he had a beard of a few days; he had a lot of exposition dialogue. When they told me I did, I thought, I’m not going to imitate Peter Coyote.
So I said, “What if I made my hair white?” I thought of Marlon Brando in “The Young Lions” and Rutger Hauer in “Blade Runner”, and the Japanese anime baddies always seem to have white hair. And: “I’d love to wear a suit like Cary Grant in ‘North by Northwest’ — if I fall and get up, the suit is still clean. I want to be clean-shaven so that the public can smell my aftershave. And all this expositional dialogue, I’d like to give it to the people around me so that Dr. Brenner can concentrate fully on finding Eleven.”
His concern is what happens if she ends up in the hands of someone who is really evil and exploits her. I don’t think Brenner ever wanted to capture her because he was angry or trying to harm her – he tried to bring her back because she could be used as a weapon by someone if she escaped.
What do you think of the fondness for 80s pop culture, the show? has inspiredespecially with viewers too young to remember?
I think it was kind of like when “American Graffiti” came out: I thought it was the coolest and most amazing thing ever. I loved the music. I loved that post-war optimism that all kids had before the Vietnam War. “American Graffiti” to me is what everyone experiences with “Stranger Things”. I lived through the ’80s and I know it wasn’t that great, but that’s what nostalgia is: we pick the best moments and everything makes sense. For a kid growing up in the pandemic, there are no masks and kids on bikes with walkie-talkies and a beautiful song by Kate Bush — I think it just seems like a kinder, less dangerous time.
Has this show changed the way you are approached in public?
Yes. If you used to be successful in 60 territories, that would be phenomenal. I think Netflix is in over 190 territories. So being part of something so successful worldwide is something that didn’t exist ten years ago.
Millie and I would go out in public, and she is instantly recognizable to young people. I should remind myself that I was with “Millie Bobby Brown, the actor” and not this young girl I’ve known since she was 11 years old. To me she’s just a girl with a charming personality and a great sense of humor. And then you go out and you realize, oh, part of her belongs to the world.
We were driving to Florida – we had a break from filming in Atlanta, so we drove to the beach with her family. We went into a Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies and people just said, “What?! Dr. Brenner and Eleven are at Wal-Mart! What’s going on?!” Talk about upside down. We turned people’s lives upside down at that moment. It’s fantastic. I’m so proud of her and the other castmates – with this kind of global success, there hasn’t been a train crash. Nothing terrible happened to any of them. I don’t want to name names, but we can look back in the ’80s and ’90s to young artists whose lives were chewed up and destroyed by fame, fortune and popularity. They all did a really good job of keeping their feet on the ground.
Would you say this show has opened doors for you?
I don’t know, it may be too early to say. I’m the guy who turned down “Top Gun”. It didn’t sit well with me. First of all I am 1.80m; I couldn’t fit in the cockpit. [Laughs.]
I have never been driven by the desire to be famous and rich. What I love about this job is the opportunity to learn, as Harper Lee says in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” that we never really understand another person until we put themselves in their shoes and put ourselves in the position.
I’m thinking of “And the Band Played On”: to understand what happened during the AIDS/HIV crisis; it was an extraordinary experience to meet those scientists who were on the front line to solve that problem. It was very important because, especially in my profession, it went through my colleagues like a forest fire and cost human lives. There’s a great line in that movie: “When a house is on fire, don’t look for someone to blame. You take a snake and you put out the fire.”
That’s what we can do: help people live vicariously through characters who can make you feel better about life and give you the chance to learn and become more empathetic.