In the course of the first 16 years of David Harbor’s performing profession, he loved success in Broadway theater (together with The Invention of Love, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and On Utopia Shores), in addition to supporting roles in tv (Pan Am, The Newsroom) and flicks (Quantum of Solace, State of Play, The Equalizer).
“I actually loved being seventh on the decision sheet for issues like Denzel Washington’s motion motion pictures and starring in performs on the Public Theater in New York,” he says. “It was an exquisite life, an exquisite life, residing in a one-bedroom within the East Village.”
On the age of 41, Harbor was forged as Jim Hopper, the chief of police in Hawkins, Indiana, in Stranger Issues. He was the one grownup male lead (reverse Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers) on the present, which featured an nearly completely younger forged. His life has by no means been the identical. The present turned an prompt world hit on Netflix, and Harbor was catapulted to the highest of the decision sheet inside weeks. All through the five-season run of Netflix’s hit collection, Harbor headlined the Hellboy reboot in 2019, performed the canny Santa in 2022’s Violent Evening, and joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe because the Pink Guardian in 2021’s Black Widow, 2025’s The Thunderbolts* and 2026’s The Avengers. Doomsday. ”
Since wrapping manufacturing on the ultimate season of Stranger Issues in 2024, Harbor has already filmed a brand new restricted collection for HBO, the darkish comedy DTF St. Louis starring Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini, and a sequel to Violent Evening, each scheduled for 2026. In late September, Harbor spoke to Selection throughout the latter’s manufacturing and talked concerning the finish of Stranger Issues and the present’s creators, Matt and Ross. Duffer, the journal’s October 15 cowl article. (This interview predated stories that co-star Millie Bobby Brown had filed a harassment grievance in opposition to Harbor earlier than the filming of Season 5, in addition to the announcement and subsequent launch of ex-wife Lily Allen’s new album West Finish Woman.)
Harbor talked concerning the impression Stranger Issues has had on his life. How the present’s big success modified that, for higher or worse. and the way his character developed over 5 seasons.
Ross Duffer and David Harbor on the set of Stranger Issues 5 with Matt Duffer, Millie Bobby Brown and Winona Ryder within the background
Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix
You’ve got mentioned earlier than that going into season one, you thought Hopper was a make-or-break position for you. Did you notice then that this present had the potential to grow to be what it’s now?
No, you most likely know extra concerning the enterprise mannequin of how a service like Netflix operates than I do. However we began the present within the fall of 2015, and the mannequin for Netflix unique collection was one thing like “Home of Playing cards” or “Orange is the New Black.” I assumed this was like a science fiction present, that some individuals would actually take pleasure in it and others would not be inquisitive about it. However I by no means imagined that it could come to have such common attraction in a zeitgeist-like method.
What has Stranger Issues dropped at your profession and life?
Lots of people know me now and I’ve a sure sort of fan base due to that. So career-wise, it opened up a ton of doorways. I imply, I am inquisitive about what occurs after “Stranger Issues” proper now by way of going by means of these doorways. I am beginning a brand new HBO present in January, and me and Jason Bateman and all the things else is within the works, so that is what I am targeted on proper now.
By the way in which, would you’ve gotten requested me that query seven years in the past? It simply tore aside the complete idea of what I might grow to be. At 35, I reached some extent in my life. I actually loved being seventh on the decision sheet for issues like Denzel Washington motion motion pictures and starring in performs on the Public Theater in New York. It was an exquisite life, an exquisite life, a one-bedroom rental within the East Village, and Stranger Issues modified that total life in some ways. I believe the one factor that hasn’t modified is my intentions, and my intentions have at all times been to inform lovely, unusual tales that open individuals’s hearts. It was the identical earlier than Stranger Issues and it was the identical after Stranger Issues, however all the things else has modified.
Why do you suppose this present has endured as an enormous hit for thus lengthy? What do you suppose is the core of its attraction?
Maybe you recognize it higher than me. What do you suppose it’s?
I’ve requested lots of people that query, and one of many issues that individuals have actually identified is that due to the breadth of the ensemble, there is a character that mainly everybody can relate to, and it is a story of people who find themselves outsiders preventing again.
Nicely, the outsiders who battle again have modified over time. Because the season progressed, we noticed an elevated curiosity in empathy. Vecna turned essential. The monsters themselves grow to be extra human, and we’re supposed to grasp them and have emotions for them. Whereas in Season 1, it was actually the villainous outsiders who have been destroying the corporate. It was an fascinating change by way of what they targeted on and the way they detailed that story.
At greatest, I believe all of the characters and story beats transfer on the identical tempo, which is tough for screenwriting. Screenplays often concentrate on characters or on plot. “Stranger Issues” does each on the identical time in a really refined method. The opposite factor is, we love Star Wars, proper? We love “The Lord of the Rings.” I believe what Stranger Issues is making an attempt to do, fairly than reboot Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, is take archetypes or metaphors or phrases or characters and create new texts from them. Hopper is Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Gandalf the Grey. There are archetypal metaphors residing in our unconscious film lexicon, and we love them. “Stranger Issues” simply reinvented them with Eleven, Hopper, and Max. Do not be afraid to play some actually highly effective energy chords.
What was the expertise like being directed by the Duffer brothers when the present began?
I believe once we began, they have been lots greener and the present was lots much less harmful. Within the first season, we have been a forgettable present. I do not even understand how a lot cash they spent on the present, nevertheless it wasn’t some huge cash and there have been no executives there. Nobody was watching what we have been doing. I believe they helped me and Winona in additional methods with the larger dialogue-heavy scenes. Not that on daily basis wasn’t nice, however I bear in mind being a little bit extra free-spirited.
How has it developed over the previous decade?
As their aesthetic turned what they needed, they began to get extra particular about issues like digital camera motion and pictures, construction and cuts. I believe we have grow to be extra correct because the present has grown in reputation and the cash and stakes have elevated. They have been at all times very beneficiant to me. They at all times valued me as a performer and actually appreciated what I dropped at the character and needed me to guide him. We spent years earlier than every season speaking about what path we needed Hopper to go.
The issue with tv is that Gilligan has been on the island sporting a crimson shirt and bucket hat for 10 seasons. I get bored simply, so I needed Hopper to be a distinct particular person. From the person in Season 1, to the overly protecting and overbearing father in Season 2, to the 80’s detective in Season 3, Magnum PI, to the gaunt, brutal resurrected warrior in Season 4, to now Season 5 – we do not know who he’s this season. However we have been very cooperative about the place we may take him. They’re very good individuals and so they actually know how you can inform a narrative.
Lastly, as one of many solely adults who has had a whole lot of expertise with this present, I needed to listen to what it was like inside for one thing like this to occur.
It could be tough for me to essentially discuss brazenly about this stuff. Due to the conduct that persons are doing at the moment when making an attempt to debate one thing that I really feel may be very three-dimensional and really complicated.
acquire one thing and lose one thing. As you recognize, Hopper now not smokes on the present. It is a direct results of reputation. As a result of you’ve gotten such a big viewers, you attempt to proceed to attraction to that enormous viewers, however when you’ve gotten a big viewers, you need a delicate edge. That is an fascinating conundrum that’s handled in pop music, popular culture, and every kind of common leisure. So, for me, I desire the liberty of the primary season, the place nobody anticipated something, versus the strain we had within the fifth season. Nonetheless, I really like being seen, I really like getting as extensive an viewers as doable, and I really like transferring the most individuals with what you do.
That is precisely what leisure struggles with. I believe it is all about getting one thing out of it. Clearly, clearly. And typically we get nostalgic pondering again to these days once we have been naive and had all the liberty on this planet as a result of nobody anticipated something from us.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
