'Stranger Things' Season 4 on Netflix: Inside the incredible transformation of Jamie Bower Campbell into Vecna
Spoilers for 'Stranger Things' Season 4, Volume 2
Ever since its inception in 2016, Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ has gone to become one of the most brilliantly conceptualized horror fantasy sci-fi dramas. The level of stellar performances from the cast each time only raises the bar. Today it is a fan-favorite series that has gradually created its own cult fan club all across the world. ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 definitely has given fans a perfect amount of supernatural thrill with a riveting storyline. The viewers have been on edge of their seats as they watch the Vecna versus our heroes who fight really hard to save each other from the Upside Down and also save their town Hawkins. In the ending of Volume 2, we see that even though the creepy creature kills a member of the Hawkins squad, because of Eleven and her friends constant attacks his powers become inevitably weak and he escapes.
No doubt audiences have really loved watching the horrific-looking new villainous baddie ‘Vecna’ in this season who has been wreaking havoc on the heroes and wants to destroy their town Hawkins. But what went into the conceptualization and character transformation of Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna is something that not many people know. So now we take a look at what went into creating Duffer Brothers' iconic villain Vecna.
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In a recent interview with Variety, designer Barry Gower who created the prosthetics for the menacing dark wizard character ‘Vecna’, told that he had been initially approached by the Duffer Brothers who requested him to create an iconic and most evil looking villain for the supernatural world in their show.
Opening up on the artwork description given to him by series designer Michael Maher for creating Vecna’s character prosthetics, Barry Gower said, “They have this artwork, which is beautiful, and we had the name of the character, but we didn’t have any backstory at all. We knew it was from the Upside Down, but we had no idea if this character was once human and we had no idea the whole story arc would be told throughout this season.”
He also added, “From a makeup effects team point of view, none of us were privy to Jamie’s role as the orderly, and all of the scenes he show with Eleven Millie Bobby Brown. So know actually seeing it for the first time, we’re in awe of this whole story arc.”
Both Gower and Bower spoke about the process of creating the main antagonist at a recent edition of Variety Artisans presented by HBO. Gower shared how the Duffer Brothers literally had wanted the character to be done in the most practical way as possible with an emphasis on creating a real physical presence on the sets. To transform Jamie Bower into Vecna, Gower revealed how the entire team literally ended up applying an entire “second skin”, with approximately around 25 pieces of latex or silicone rubber material being glued to his body via a medical adhesive.
By the end of this entire process, Vecna’s body suit weighed roughly around thirty pounds when applied to Bower, with the heaviest weight sitting on his chest and headpieces. Gower shared how Bower “deserved a medal” for putting up with the immense amount of prosthetics and the time it took to apply it each day. Bower added that it was something he eventually got used to and soon enough he also made a daily routine of putting on music during the prosthetics application period to help him get into the zone of Vecna.
Furthermore, Bower also added, “Often I’d finish the day, and the next day I’d be so tired and hungry that I would just eat everything I could see in site. So being able to work out with that on was probably a benefit. You just get used to it. We’d done the test in London, so from that point in I knew what the process was going to be like. So I was like, Cool, I now know this. I’m set, I’m ready to go. I know what I can do to help myself get into the space I need to be in.”
'Stranger Things' Season 4 Volume I and II is streaming on Netflix.
