Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery Filmed His Billy Scenes For Season 4 In A Wild Way
The fourth season of "Stranger Things" was the definition of overstuffed; with multiple genres and settings and a sprawling cast of characters, the show stretched the boundaries of epic storytelling almost beyond its limitations. With more than a year of retrospect, some season 4 plotlines are forgettable, while others are still lodged firmly in our hearts and minds.
But no plot was as universally embraced as Max's, the heartbreaking depression storyline that put actor Sadie Sink's name in award show contention and catapulted Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" back up the charts. Max entered season 4 feeling broken, plagued by grief and survivor's guilt over her brother Billy's (Dacre Montgomery) death. In the fourth episode's emotional climax, she faced off against a hallucinated version of Billy possessed by the monster Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), and it was the most powerful moment of the season if not the entire series.
Yet, somehow, it was directed over Zoom with a ping pong ball eyeline and a hometown set. Montgomery spoke to Awards Daily about the unusual circumstances around his return to the show earlier this summer, revealing that he wasn't able to shoot in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic – so "Stranger Things" brought the set to him. "I was in Australia, and it was very difficult at the time to get out of Oz and into the US and then back into Australia," he explained to the outlet. "So there was a point where I was going to try and have to figure it out, but the Duffer Brothers actually were sort of kind enough to say they'd make it happen in Oz."
The Upside Down by way of Perth, Australia
Apparently, their solution involved building a set in Perth, where Montgomery lived, and shipping him his character's wig and prosthetics. While this sounds like the recipe for a bad home movie, it seems like Montgomery had help from crew members who assembled the set, including a ping pong ball where Sink would have been standing. "It was an incredibly unique experience, but nice to do it at home," Montgomery noted. The actor shared that, aside from his work on "Elvis" during the pandemic, he had never actually worked in Australia, which made the experience that much more special.
"Not only was I in Oz, but I was home in Perth, which is just so rare for me," he explained, adding, "So many of the local crew were from Perth, so it was actually a really nice opportunity to be at home and work at home." Netflix's flagship series clearly has a different definition of working from home than most of us are used to, one that apparently included an audio track of Sink's lines and some direction from Shawn Levy — via iPad.
The remotely directed scene is an impressive example of production ingenuity, and a testament to how much creativity is invested in the massive sci-fi series. While some shows that greenscreen characters from off-set look terrible, "Stranger Things" is seamless in its incorporation of Montgomery. Billy's confrontation with Max is beautiful, scary, and above all else heart-wrenching, and Montgomery's performance shines through even if it was filmed a world away. Score one more point for the "let's keep working from home forever" crowd!