From the moment Henry Creel emerged as the human origin of Vecna, Jamie Campbell Bower has had the responsibility of carrying some of the most psychologically complex and dense material in Stranger Things. Across multiple timelines, identities, and performances including a resurrection, Bower’s work as Henry anchors the show’s mythology in something human, culminating in making him one of the most pivotal figures in the final season.

In a recent conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub ahead of Stranger Things 5 Volume 2, Bower discussed the latest episodes of Season 5, revealed which franchise he wants to add to his resume next, and reflected on how developing Vecna’s voice and learning Henry Creel’s backstory shaped his approach to the character. He also spoke about the pressure of portraying multiple iterations of Henry in the final season and the sense of responsibility that comes with inhabiting a character so central to the world the Duffer Brothers created.

Franchise Hopping and Dreaming of ‘Jurassic Park’

“Would I insist on getting eaten?”

COLLIDER: I gotta start with the most important question first. You were in Twilight, you were in Harry Potter, you’ve been in Stranger Things and now you’re gonna be in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. What is the next franchise you’re going for?

BOWER: Jurassic Park. I would love to be in Jurassic Park. I mean, I’ve always loved those films growing up, and it’s funny. I think I watched one of the new ones a while back when it first came out, but I have watched more of the new ones recently. They’re amazing, they’re so much fun. Yeah, and there’s such a nostalgic feel to those first three movies for me as a kid as well.

The original Jurassic Park is amazing. I definitely have to know, if you got into Jurassic Park, would you insist on getting eaten by a dinosaur?

BOWER: I feel like in Jurassic Park, the people that get eaten by the dinosaurs are the bad guys. You know, there’s that great shot where the man gets eaten on the loo, on the toilet in one of those early ones. Would I insist on getting eaten? Maybe, maybe. Yeah, no, no, no, no, actually, no.

So you want to, I get it. So where are you going to be watching the series finale of Stranger Things?

BOWER: I’m gonna be watching it with my friends tomorrow.

Oh, you’re all seeing it tomorrow.

BOWER: I couldn’t possibly say.

They’re not showing it to anybody, at least journalists and people until New Year’s Eve, until it goes live.

Developing Vecna’s Iconic Voice for ‘Stranger Things’

“I felt like I had a duty of care.

But one of the things that blew me away was I saw you on TV recently doing the Vecna voice, and I really had no idea you could do that with your vocal cords. So when you were hired by the Duffers, did they have any idea that you had this ability? Or were they hiring you for your acting and then it’s like a bonus, “Oh, I can do the voice too”?

BOWER: I have a vague recollection of going to see them in the writer’s room or the house that they had in LA prior to fully being cast in Season 4 and them saying, “We like your voice, we really like your voice.” And I was like, “Okay, cool, that’s nice.” So I don’t know, you’d have to ask them specifically if they just believed that I could. But it was definitely a process. I have emails that I would send to them of me doing the voice in different environments with different music underneath it once I’d kind of gotten to a space with it that I felt really comfortable with.

So I don’t know if they cast me solely because of anything, but it was definitely something that when I came to approach the character, I was like, “No, I really, really wanna work on this. This is something that I really wanna bring to the table here,” because it just felt, I don’t know, I felt like I had a duty of care, I suppose.

I’m sure that they cast you for you and then the voice was like a bonus just because how could they know you could do that back in a voice before you got cast?

BOWER: Yeah, it’s possible, it’s possible.

Learning Henry Creel’s Backstory Through ‘The First Shadow’

“It was definitely helpful to have seen that and to have experienced that.”

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a play that I didn’t realize how much it ties into the final season. Knowing so much about Henry’s backstory, when were you first told about the story and the backstory, when you finally learned all that, did it impact your portrayal of the character?

BOWER: I saw the play twice in between shooting Seasons 4 and 5. And then as we progressed through Season 5, we got our scripts and kind of dribs and drabs. And there was obviously the cave moment in Episode 3, I think it is, or 4, of the season, where he stood outside and Max, and he was terrified and whatever. And I think for me, having seen the play, there were definitely story beats that I took with me into those particular moments of just how that felt and the impact and how much was taken away from Henry, even with this simplicity. Well, not this simplicity, but like, even in his relationship with Patty Newby, that was something that was in his heart, and an experience led to it being taken away. It was another moment where love was removed from him and hope was removed from him. So, you know, it was definitely helpful to have seen that and to have experienced that.

So how much did I know — I was figuring it out and asking questions as we were going along and drawing lines between things that I knew were our heart moments and things that I was doing and then making sure that I was on the right track by being able to ask Matt and Ross [Duffer], like, “Am I right in thinking this?”

Carrying Multiple Versions of the Character in the Final Season

“I just always felt like I had this great duty of care to this story, to this universe, to this world that Matt and Ross created.”

One of the things about this final season is you are all over it in terms of different characters. And what was it like for you as an actor seeing how much responsibility your characters, if you will, had in the final season and how much you weren’t going to be in makeup? You deliver a really great performance this year in multiple roles. I’m just curious about the pressure of doing it.

BOWER: Thank you so much. That’s very kind of you to say. I mean, the prospect of playing Mr. Whatsit felt quite scary, not so much because of the pressure from outside sources, but just making sure that I could do it, that I could bring it forwards, that I could use my skill set and my brain in a way that felt, I suppose, conducive to the story, because it is a sort of new iteration almost. It’s a presentation, as I said before, and that’s really scary once you’ve built a character to go, “Awesome, you’ve built that one and you’ve built Vecna. Now, here’s a new one for you to build in the same universe.”

And you’re like, “Okay,” and like, “So how do I take things from one character and put them in somewhere else to make sure that there is a sort of cohesion between them all?” And that was the most challenging thing. And it wasn’t so much that I felt that it was because I was like all over it. I just always felt like I had this great duty of care to this story, to this universe, to this world that Matt and Ross created. That, yes, people love and know, but primarily because Matt and Ross Duffer built this by hand with their hearts and their minds. And I want to do that justice. I want to step forward into that and give them what they deserve.