The following contains mild spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5.Jamie Campbell Bower, the actor responsible for playing Vecna in the Netflix fantasy horror phenomenon Stranger Things, has shared his inspiration for Vecna’s deep voice, and the monster’s overhaul in Season 5. The last run of the Netflix giant has already begun with the release of the first episodes, and while Vecna isn’t heavily featured, he does show up in Episode 4. Season 5’s Vecna has given fans something to talk about, and Bower has decided to explain the ’80s horror inspiration behind the voice and why the villain now looks more powerful than ever before.
Speaking with Screen Rant, the actor explained the details behind the voice and how he achieves it with such ease. Bower says that doing the Vecna voice isn’t “taxing,” and that it’s actually “more relaxed than it is stressful.” The actor continues: “I started in a place of stress, but what ends up happening is your larynx closes up, your voice gets tight, and can’t do sh*t. So when you relax more, everything opens up, you can breathe better. Everything starts to feel lower, and there you go, it starts to happen.”
The actor also reveals that one of his major inspirations when he was auditioning for the show was Pinhead, the Hellraiser villain played by Doug Bradley. Bower shares that he didn’t even know about Vecna when he was given Hellraiser as a reference for the character. It is an influence he also mentions in terms of the monster’s voice in Season 5:
“I credit where credit is due, it came from Doug Bradley as Pinhead. That’s where I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to start there, and then make sure that I can put all my emotions, feelings, resentments into that.'”
Why Vecna Looks Different in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5
A few days ago, Netflix unveiled the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5, with the second and third parts coming on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, respectively. The first four episodes saw the Hawkins gang trying to hunt Vecna in what is a completely modified town. The military has arrived to stay, and they hold a very dark secret in the outpost that has a direct entrance to the Upside Down.
Vecna was not anywhere to be seen until the last minutes of Episode 4, when he comes out and shows his might in our realm. Before a key interaction with Will Byers, fans witnessed a different kind of villain – one that looked more powerful and angrier. This new look is not exactly a coincidence, as the creators revealed before why Vecna looks stronger: “The idea of it was based a little bit on the original Hellraiser, although it’s different than that. But yeah, he retreated to lick his wounds. Nancy blew holes all through his body, so he more or less rebuilt his body into something stronger and hopefully cooler.” Bower weighs in, and confirms Vecna’s new look reflects a recovery process that saw him becoming more resilient:
“Well, as we saw at the end of Season 4, Vecna suffered a fall and obviously was sort of almost burned alive. My understanding of it is that the reason he looks the way he does now is a byproduct of that process. And also, just having spent more time, not in the human world as it were.
“He’s become more resentful and hideous within that process and part of the world in which he was thrown into.”
- Release Date
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2016 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Writers
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Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock