Strangers Things: Jamie Campbell Bower aka Vecna talks about playing the villain of the show

Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna on Stranger Things joined the series in its fourth season to play the villain. The villain, who operates from Upside Down, was revealed to have started as a human with psychic powers. After murdering his family, he became the first child in Martin Brenner's Hawkins National Laboratory experiments — the ones that eventually led to Eleven honing her powers. In a recent interview, Bower stated that he had a sneaking suspicion that his One/Henry Creel/Vecna is the major antagonist of the entire series, not just season four.

He said, “It was almost like I knew. It never felt like, ‘Oh my God, I have to live up to this.’ Because for me, internally, the only thought process I had was, ‘Oh no, I created this. This was my doing.’ And I had that thought from quite early on. So, there was never a fear of receiving the information and feeling like I had to live up to it. It was more like, ‘Awesome, I’m not wrong!”

Jamie Campbell Bower has been posting a lot of behind-the-scenes films on his Instagram account, including videos of him donning his seven-hour-long demon costume and recording the Vecna voice. The actor focused on his body language while also worrying about Vecna's walk. Jamie said, “The walk was at first on my own figuring out the stillness and purpose of why I was walking the way I was walking. And then I had to try to make it as natural and realistic as possible while wearing the costumed feet. In terms of gait and poise and posture, it was about: Where is the power coming from? Where is that center of gravity? I don’t have to be wild and maniac, I can be precise and chosen, and dominating,”

Meanwhile, Stranger Things has now crossed one billion viewing hours on Netflix. It’s the first series in English to cross one billion viewing hours. All the seasons of Stranger Things are currently streaming on Netflix.