Original subtitles

Will struggles throughout Volume 1

with this shame and this guilt of,

"Am I evil?"

"Am I bad? This monster inside of me…"

"Am I the monster? Am I responsible for all these things?"

I don't understand. How did you…

He's a sorcerer. A real-life, honest-to-God sorcerer.

"Am I a superhero? Am I good?"

"I don't know if I am because this monster is inside of me

and I can't control it."

I could've helped them fight if I'd acted sooner,

but I was too late,

and now he's got all of them, all 12.

We failed.

I failed.

-And action! -Action.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Door!

It was an idea early on that we wanted to bring Kali back.

It was a character we have been wanting to explore further.

We've had a lot of ideas for Kali

that in Season 2 we weren't able to explore,

so finally we found the perfect place.

In some ways, it is a completely different character.

She's not in control,

which I think what we saw in Season 2,

it was very much a person who wants to be in control.

You take control over your own look, your own narrative,

and she loses everything in Season 5.

They found me, found my friends…

and they took me.

I asked Matt and Ross if I could do the head shave on camera.

They felt very excited about it, and they said yes.

And I remember the next time seeing the script,

it was written into the script.

The person who shaved my head is Brynn,

who is department head on the hair team.

I know this is not an easy thing to do,

we had to do it in a one-take, so it had to work.

We talked through everything,

of how each step would go with the buzz,

and then the shears,

and how it would film.

The set was quiet, like you could hear a pin drop.

Sharing that moment with her, and just being so… so safe…

Yeah, that was really meaningful.

Cut.

-Cut it. -Tails.

Tails.

Even for Eleven, it's just incredibly shocking that she's still alive

and that she's here for a reason.

And it really unveils what K has been doing and working on.

A secret government program, does that not…

remind you of anything?

Mom.

We're in Vecna's mind in Camazotz's Woods.

I'm trying to find my way to the cave which Henry will not go in.

Northwest.

A little lost, are we?

He really, really, scared the…

scared the poop out of me.

That for me is the first time… that Henry drops the act this season.

Who gave you this map?

Your mom!

Look at me!

I love being able to just kind of… to cut loose,

and that's the thing with Henry, is like,

it always feels like there's this sort of… bubbling

rage that's going on underneath.

And I will kill your fool of a father,

your snake of a mother,

and that bitch of a sister too.

It was very fun to film.

Jamie was on top of me.

I didn't really expect it,

because I just expected him to, like, kneel softly on top of me,

but he went in for the grab, and that caught me off guard.

And that really helped me add to my scaredness of the acting.

-Your mom! -Look at me!

I love Jake to bits, he's the best.

I don't think I'd met Jake before.

And I'm, like, in the moment,

like fully in from the word go, getting to work.

And he's like, "Hi," and I just go insane.

I got my headphones on.

-Cut! -Tail sticks.

Even though he was still in his Vecna, scary mindset,

he still said, "You good, brother?" after every take

because he was on top of me. And I said, "Yeah, totally."

We're done, gentlemen, thank you. Thank you, everybody.

Well done today.

Hey, come here.

Throughout not just this season but the whole story,

Joyce is so overprotective of her son, and for good reason.

What she saw him go through, she never wants to see that again.

But he has this strength now that he didn't have before,

so he has to convince her like, "Mom, please listen to me,

I can do this, I can fight back,

I just need you to trust me and let me do this."

You didn't fail tonight.

What you did

was extraordinary.

Something happened this season where

she believes

that he is strong enough to do this

and he's smart enough to do this.

Vecna chose you

because he underestimated you.

I think we all have. I know I did.

And that is a mistake I will never, ever make again.

I was taken aback,

and I also credit a lot of that to Noah's performance.

She has this switch,

and you watch it, and you see her say,

"You know what? No."

"We're gonna suit you up and get you in there

and you're gonna fight back." And it's like "Yeah, Joyce!"

-Mom. -Yeah?

Thank you for trusting me.

Kill the bastard.

You got this.

I remember getting a phone call saying,

"We're gonna need a real Demogorgon."

I could almost hear the crew behind me screaming.

It was gonna be really exciting

that we'd actually get to build a physical Demogorgon.

The great thing with the advent of digital technology

is that Michael and the team from visual effects just gave us a file

of an eight-foot tall Demogorgon,

and we 3D printed it, and then molded it,

cast it in silicone.

It was a super-exciting build.

And it was one of those bucket-list things for our team.

Will manages to enter into my mind,

and he is so forceful that he manages to make my leg break.

I basically had to act like Vecna,

and embody this villain, and this monster,

and speak through him.

I feel like I just had to let down a lot of walls and just trust myself

and just unleash this, like, beast within me.

It's a very vulnerable thing to be an actor

and be the conduit of the story.

Once you've made them feel safe,

you get some really fearless performing,

which happened with Noah.

If you can hear me,

you need to run.

Run!

He went all the way with it. I was so impressed.

Get out!

Remember what that's like? Having friends?

Yeah. I do. I remember what it was like to have a good friend.

There was pressure on that because that's something

I think a lot of people are gonna be roped into

because a lot of people are invested in

the relationship we have with each other,

just as much as we both are into it.

And so I think it's gonna be a tough watch for people

who really love our dynamic.

The stunts team had a fight sequence that they thought up.

And we took a look at it, and we thought,

"Great. This is a really great base."

So now it's time for us to get in there

and work on maybe clarifying the acting intention behind it.

Stop it, man! Henderson!

It was fun to work with Gaten because

I've done so much, like, dialogue, so many scenes with him

but he's, like, a young man now.

You're gonna hurt yourself!

So he is really up for that kind of work,

the physical, demanding stunt stuff.

Stop it.

Enough!

-And cut. -Cut.

You good?

After I finish up the fight and stuff, it kind of is a segue into

Dustin coming across Brenner's secret office,

where it is revealed that the Upside Down

is not actually a dimension.

And it kind of flips everything we knew about

the structure of our universe on its head.

We found the shield generator, do you copy?

If you can hear me, I was wrong!

The shield generator, it's not a shield generator!

It's not dark magic!

If you destroy it, you will die!

We will die.

Holly will die! Everyone will die!

Do you copy?