Gaten Matarazzo hoped ‘Stranger Issues’ followers can be conflicted about Dustin in Season 5

The Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) viewers meet in Stranger Issues Season 5 would not really feel like the identical Dustin we have recognized since Season 1.

Gone is Hawkins’ resident ball of sunshine, changed with a sulking, offended younger man who would sooner graffiti a bully’s locker than belt “By no means Ending Story” over walkie-talkie. But this transformation did not come out of nowhere. As an alternative, it stems from a transparent level of trauma for Dustin: witnessing the tragic dying of Eddie (Joseph Quinn) on the finish of Season 4.

Since then, Dustin has channeled his internal Eddie, rising out his hair, donning handfuls of rings, and rocking his Hellfire Membership shirt irrespective of how a lot abuse it will get him from bullies. However whereas Dustin pays tribute to Eddie, he is been pushing away his different shut buddies, particularly Steve (Joe Keery).

“He is actively attempting to chop himself off from the particular person he is terrified of dropping probably the most,” Matarazzo informed Mashable throughout a Say Extra interview.

Dustin’s grief causes severe pressure in Stranger Issues Season 5.

Matarazzo knew the strained dynamic between Dustin and Steve can be polarizing, as the 2 had been mainly inseparable since Season 2. He additionally knew the identical can be true of Dustin’s emotional arc as a complete.

“I used to be sort of hoping there can be a little bit of a conflicted feeling round it,” Matarazzo mentioned. “I did not need it to come back throughout as like, ‘Oh, poor him.’ As a result of as a lot as that is true, and I feel lots of people can clearly see he is going via quite a bit, he is additionally being a dick. And I feel, irrespective of how a lot one is grieving, it would not excuse your habits in direction of different individuals, particularly those that are in your nook, people who find themselves there supporting you.”

That tug-of-war between sympathy for and frustration at Dustin runs via a lot of Season 5, beginning with Dustin lacking episode’s 1 crawl to the Upside Down after choosing a combat together with his tormentors. His absence jeopardizes the mission and additional strains his relationship together with his buddies, a lot of whom have skilled their very own losses since Season 1.

He is going via quite a bit. He is additionally being a dick.

“Dustin’s ready the place there’s — it appears horrible to say — however there’s virtually greater fish to fry than you dropping your pal,” Matarazzo mentioned. “Everybody’s misplaced individuals. Perhaps it is the primary time it felt so current to Dustin, as a result of it is any person so near him, and it occurs proper in entrance of him.”

Matarazzo contrasts Dustin’s personal grieving over Eddie with Lucas’ (Caleb McLaughlin) grieving over Max (Sadie Sink) being in a coma for over a 12 months.

“Lucas is clearly coping with one thing similar to Dustin, but additionally appears to be taking it in a route that is much less egocentric,” he mentioned, pointing to Lucas’ continued involvement within the Season 5 crawl and the pal group total.

The variations within the two characters’ grieving processes on display screen highlights that there isn’t any one technique to take care of loss. Grief is just not linear, and Dustin’s personal journey comes with no scarcity of mess and pressure. That is very true of his relationship with Steve, which hits its lowest level in Season 5.

Dustin and Steve’s extra contentious relationship this season altered the best way Matarazzo and Keery approached key scenes collectively, because the pair’s friendlier, extra enjoyable dynamic as scene companions clashed with Dustin and Steve’s battle.

“Generally we might be goofing off earlier than takes and particularly early on, they’d yell, ‘motion,’ and I am like, ‘Oh, I am not centered within the slightest,’ as a result of I am nonetheless simply joking round with him,” Matarazzo mentioned. “That was a unique method. And so we might take a look at issues and take a look at one another and be like, ‘Man, that is actually unhappy,’ as a result of we simply need to have enjoyable typically. That is the pure drive there.”

That is to not say there are not any enjoyable Dustin and Steve moments in Season 5. Matarazzo factors to the scene in episode 4 when Steve drives his automobile via a rift into the Upside Down, with a terrified Dustin, Nancy (Natalia Dyer), and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) hanging on for pricey life.

“[In that scene] there’s the traditional pleasure of us screaming and yelling and insulting one another, however with playful banter, and I feel it is a type of moments the place in [Dustin’s] bizarre, little pent-up rage, when all is alleged and executed and when the whole lot else goes loopy round him, he would not actually have time to actively attempt to be imply to [Steve],” Matarazzo mentioned.

Stranger Issues Season 5, Quantity 2 facilities Dustin and Steve’s relationship.

Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery in “Stranger Issues.”
Credit score: Netflix

The Dustin and Steve drama involves a head in Season 5, Quantity 2, when the pair examine Hawkins Lab within the Upside Down. There, the 2 totally have it out about Eddie’s dying, with their slicing phrases culminating in a bodily altercation. In prior seasons, Matarazzo would have put lots of stress on himself the whole day main as much as taking pictures that scene.

“However that day, I keep in mind I felt very regular till about 20 minutes earlier than we began taking pictures,” he recalled. “Generally I simply wander round in a nook with headphones on, probably not to construct up any feelings or something like that, however to simply weirdly get the top fog out of it and simply be at a impartial place, as a result of then you definately could be open to discovering what occurs. There are lots of completely different takes. There are takes the place we’re crying earlier than the combat, there are takes the place we’re even angrier, and there is takes the place’s it simply at a impartial tone, the place we’re simply saying this stuff to one another after which seeing how naturally it digs in, and so they took quite a bit from every of them.”

Nonetheless, one scene that Matarazzo did put stress on himself for was Dustin and Steve’s eventual reconciliation, which led to a hug so deep I felt it in my bones.

“I used to be so terrified of it the entire time,” Matarazzo mentioned. “I keep in mind the entire season, I learn it on the desk learn, and I used to be like, ‘Oh nice, it is a type of.'”

A lot of Season 5 was shot chronologically, too, so Matarazzo and Keery got here into the scene having already gone via a lot of the emotional build-up. That simply makes the dialog all of the extra cathartic, as Stranger Issues‘ fan-favorite duo lastly lay all their feelings naked.

“I feel one of many healthiest issues to do in grief is unpacking it once you really feel the necessity to take action and diving in and feeling the whole lot that you simply doable can really feel and that you simply’re naturally inclined to feeling,” Matarazzo mentioned.

The reconciliation scene is that to a T, with Steve and particularly Dustin dropping any facades and simply permitting themselves to be open about how a lot they imply to at least one one other. It is a stand-out Stranger Issues second in a season filled with them, made all of the sweeter by the advanced twists and turns Steve and Dustin took to get there.

For extra from Mashable’s interview with Gaten Matarazzo, watch the complete Say Extra episode on YouTube.

Volumes 1 and a pair of of Stranger Issues Season 5 are actually streaming on Netflix. The collection finale premieres Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix and in theaters.