Charlie Heaton's Strange Audition in Hammersmith Branch of Byron
Interviewed by Skype for hit US show Stranger Things in local burger restaurant
Actor Charlie Heaton, who has shot to fame playing Jonathan Byers in the hugely popular Netflix series Stranger Things, had a suitably strange audition for the show - conducted in the Hammersmith Grove branch of hamburger restaurant Byron.
Charlie, 23 who was originally from Bridlington in Yorkshire, had only a handful of minor television credits in British shows such as Casualty, Vera and DCI Banks before he was cast by Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer to play the introverted teenager.
He told the Evening Standard: "I sent in an audition tape and then found out they wanted to know more about me and
where I had come from. They ended up Skyping me from a Byron Burger in Hammersmith — it was the weirdest thing.
"They said they were looking for people who weren’t necessarily known actors, and I told them how much I related to this character as I was from a working class background and really into music.
" I was flown over to the US for a screen test and got the role very quickly. Then it came out and almost overnight it became a phenomenon."
Charlie admits he had no formal acting training and originally moved to London at 16 to become a musician. He toured with several bands but ended up auditioning for a part in an advert with his sister simply to make some money.
Since then, he told the Standard, he has been learning on the job. "It’s the best way! You can go to school and learn and that works for some people. But I think the best kind of learning is practical and learning on the job.
"When I see my old mates they will say 'You’re doing well, good on you!' It kind of blows their minds — it blows my mind too! I sometimes think, 'What am I doing standing on this red carpet?' It’s hard to believe. You just tell yourself, 'Just play along and hopefully no one will notice!'."
The first series of the sci-fi thriller, set in a fictional Indiana town in the Eighties and also starring Winona Ryder as Jonathan's mother, centred around the disappearance of his brother, Will. The second series is now streaming on Netflix and is proving an equally enormous hit, currently tending worldwide on Twitter @Stranger-Things.
Since starring in the series, Charlie has gone on to win a role in Marvel’s next X-Men movie, New Mutants, which he has just finished filming.
October 27, 2017