Stranger Things' Vecna Actor Used Murderous Methods To Get Into Character
By all accounts Jamie Campbell Bower is a sweetheart of a guy. You can't scroll any social media feed without seeing some sweet interaction he's had with "Stranger Things" fans at conventions or just run-ins on the street. That's where you really know when a celebrity is being nice, when they're not making a hundred bucks when taking a selfie with a fan.
While he might not be someone to be afraid of in real life, on screen it's a different story. Vecna is one of the best pop culture villains of the last few years. He's as ruthless as Jason Voorhees, as cleverly demented as Freddy Krueger, and as relentless as The Terminator — and he's a real threat to a group of kids we all feel protective of after four seasons worth of following their adventures.
In order to get into that headspace, Bower used some ... unique acting tricks. You don't go from super kind and nice to the epitome of evil without some kind of transition, and when the cast was on their press tour to promote season 4 of "Stranger Things," we got a glimpse at Bower's process. Some of us might wish we hadn't wanted to know.
Turns out Bower took some cues from the tactics of real-life serial killers while he contemplated his upcoming victims. As he told People, "I would take photographs of each victim. I'd print them off, my next victim, and I would cross their eyes out and put them up on my wall. And I'd stare at them."
Bower is committed, I'll give him that.
All prosthetics and no play makes Jamie a dull boy
Bower had a ton of time to contemplate his victims while he sat in the makeup chair. If you've seen "Stranger Things" season 4 then you know Vecna is mostly seen in head-to-toe makeup. The monster version of the character required eight hours in the makeup chair, which is time that Bower said he used to get into Vecna's disturbed state of mind. He called this his "dark meditation," where he would listen to repetitive low-frequency sounds and repeat mantras to himself. "I would clear my mind and then have these phrases that I would just put in over and over and over again," he told People. "Walking around late at night. Isolation on my own was always a good thing."
The actor said that resentment was a massive driving force for Vecna. He had been abused, misused, and discarded by those he trusted, and as a result, he believed the world was incredibly unjust. That repetition helped Bower feel the anger and drive of his character's tortured soul. For the more explosively angry moments, Bower confessed he alternated between using pumping music and sitting alone in the dark to get to that emotional state. The last trick he admitted to using was isolating himself from the rest of the cast, so all he had were their creepy eyes-scratched-out photographs to focus on.
Sounds exhausting, but that's why people like Bower are so good at what they do. They have the stamina and ambition to push themselves to such extremes, and we, the viewing audience, reap all the benefits.
Hopefully for next season Bower will be able to reach those depressing depths without having to pull serial killer moves, but maybe the old adage is correct, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm just glad he's not thousand-yard-staring at my face is all I'm saying.