Fred. That is horrifying. Are we ready? When I got the audition
through for this show I was given two sets of sides. One was from
Primal Fear, and the other set of sides was from Hellraiser. And then, second week of January they’re like, “Oh, Matt and Ross want to meet you.” And I was like, “Oh my God, amazing.” I didn't speak
throughout the whole meeting. Which is quite unusual for me because I can be quite a chatterbox. We've been talking about it since season one that we wanted a villain that could actually speak to our characters, that could sort of vocalize their motives and their thoughts, and also to get into our character's heads. It is time, Max. They just told me about the character and they kept on saying, “Oh, we love your voice.
We love your voice.” And I was thinking,
“What you mean you love my voice?” It's just how I talk. And then at the end, they showed me what they were sort of designing,
the monster side of Henry as or Vecna. And I just like, my mouth fell to the floor and I remember leaving their house
and just being like, That was so cool. That was so awesome. From what I knew of the character at
that point, I’d already felt so invested. So when they were like, Hey, you got it I was like, “Oh my God.” There was like a sigh of relief, there was like tears,
it was a big deal. And then from there on in, I was put into the
room with Barrie Gower, and Barrie and Duncan
were designing Vecna. My name is Barrie Gower and I'm the prosthetics designer for Stranger Things Season Four. Vecna, it's a really fascinating
character. He's humanoid but we are basically integrating lots of shapes and textures and forms from the upside down. So there's a lot of kind of roots
and vines and we still have panels of flesh which are very pale,
almost anemic looking. And the idea really is that the exposed flesh that is pale is human skin that hasn't seen
sunlight for the last 20 years. -It's so surreal. Once we had a life cast of Jamie, basically we want all the appliances rather than having a
rubber monster suit, we were designing it as
kind of a jigsaw puzzle, which gives us a lot more
fluid sort of movements. We don't have much buckling, we have a really
skintight sort of look. The first thing that I started to think about was the physicality of this person. I knew that we were going to have these long fingers and just move my fingers around, really slow. I’m moving them fast
now because I'm excited. But move my fingers
around very slowly. But then imagine them
kind of being out here like this. Matt and Ross were very clear that they wanted this large,
distorted hand. When we started exploring the character and looking at the design of it we were quite confident that we could do something practical by using mechanical finger
extensions to extend Jamie's fingers 8 to 10 inches. So they are aluminum jointed finger extensions, and then it’s a foam latex skin on the outside, which gives a quite nice, smooth,
organic sort of feel. As a practical effects department, we tend to work very closely
with digital effects. A lot of the best effects achieved now, in TV and film are a combination of the two. In the long run, I think once we get through to the finished product There will be a combination of practical and digital elements. Thank you, dude. -You’re doing great. There he goes. -It’s nice to meet you. -Bye-bye guys. Vecna is chilling. Vecna understands us on a human level and he understands us and our vulnerabilities and knows how to capitalize upon those
to achieve exactly what he needs. And he will stop at nothing. Mom? Just loosening this up for you,
Sweetheart. You're going to look
absolutely beautiful. Vecna essentially is targeting people who are experiencing some kind of grief or there's, you know, some troubles that are
happening in their life. So they're emotionally
vulnerable and fragile. I mean, it's the first time we've
seen a threat that's so human because you've had
the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer, but nothing quite like Vecna. This is really the first time since
season one that we're going back to the world of
prosthetics where we're actually having someone in a suit,
performing on the stage. Selfishly, as an actor, it's so incredibly helpful because it's something real to look at. And especially just his demeanor on set and his performance and the amount of himself that he would bring after being in makeup for I think 8 hours every day. 2 hours to maybe take it off. That's a full work day for somebody. Being face to face with what is all practical effects
and that was all completely him. You feel so in the moment, which is, you know, such a, I felt like that was such a luxury. Put at ease to know that, I would actually have
something to play off of. And someone as amazing as Jamie who's just so talented. Your time is almost at an end. Let go! The first time I saw Vecna, it was really, really surreal because I was going into a rehearsal
right after lunch, and I'm very bubbly after and you
know you are in your food coma. And I walked on and I saw him and he snapped his
neck and looked at me. And I'm there and I'm like fully in it, like staring at people, grunting, growling, pacing. And I looked at him and I was like, “What is that?” I didn’t know. I thought this was going to be CGI.
I didn’t know. Bless her, she burst into tears. The whole rehearsal I was crying. And she was like, “That's not Jamie!” And I'm crazy, so I was like, yeah. I was like
talking to her inside my mind. I was like, “No, Jamie's dead.
It's just. It’s just Vecna.” It is over Eleven. Your friends have lost. Jamie had to give me a hug because
I couldn't do the scene. So the fear was
genuine, definitely very real. I didn't have to act. I was terrified. You know, Vecna is not some sort of sea creature from the deep. This character is not chaos. This character is very
sure and certain and attentive to
everything that he’s doing. I saw a means to
realize my potential. To become the predator I was always born to be. He felt like he was lied to, as well as kind of ostracized from
his family, isolated, alone. Combine all these things together
with the rage that he feels, and all of a sudden, it's this sort of
catalyst for terrifying events. Tell her. No! Everything. No! When somebody is filled
with so much rage and so much resentment and he's been alone
in that for a number of years, the human element is gone. He's now out for blood. He's now out for vengeance. Maybe we'll save
that story for another day. It doesn't have a
happy ending, I'm afraid. That's it? Beautiful. I always feel like these
things are like a school test. Did I pass?
