Movies - TV
The Stranger Things Scene That Left Noah Schnapp Terrified In Real Life
By VALERIE ETTENHOFER
The fourth season of "Stranger Things" has plenty of highlights, but no episode stands out quite as much as "Dear Billy." Among other brilliant shots, the episode features an immersive one-take shot — the Lenora shootout — that apparently felt very real to the actors who filmed it, especially Noah Schnapp, who plays artistic teen Will Byers.
In the nearly 60-second Steadicam sequence, the teens — Will, Jonathan, and Mike — make their way through the house while glass shatters and bullets whizz through the air around them, following a sudden appearance from armed military men. According to Schnapp, the practical effects made the big action sequence feel stunningly real.
"So on the first take they did it was with all the bullets and all the glass breaking and the whole house breaking down. Right on the first take, I felt that raw fear," Schnapp confessed. Schnapp’s co-star Charlie Heaton clarified in an interview that the production used water round loads, which he describes as "like blank bullets, but they're loud."
“The faces that he [Noah] has in this whole sequence I think was him genuinely being terrified. Safely terrified,” said Heaton, commending the show's “amazing safety team.” “It was definitely scary but it looks great,” Schnapp recalled, while episode director Shawn Levy called the shot “one of the most gratifying pieces of directing” he's ever accomplished.