Stranger Things‘ Cara Buono addressed the show recasting — and aging up — her onscreen daughter ahead of the show’s fifth and final season.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Buono explained how the show found a way to make Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) the focus ahead of the finale.
“In season 1, Holly is four years old and she’s in Joyce’s house. The Demogorgon reaches out and the lights go crazy as he starts to reach through the wall. So I love how that was set up from the beginning,” she noted.
Buono pointed out that everyone on the cast is “growing up” on screen.
“I watched all the kids grow up in the last 10 years. So we got some new kids on the set and I loved working with Nell. I love spending time with her,” she gushed. “Nell is incredibly talented and has an incredible work ethic. She’s very smart and we just stepped right into it.”
Buono continued: “I know that the audience has to suspend belief — in a sense — that suddenly Holly went from age six to 12. But that is part of the Stranger Things world.”
Stranger Things, which debuted in 2016, focuses on a fictional town where a series of supernatural events take place and cause mystery and mayhem. Anniston Price and Tinsley Price appeared in the first four seasons as younger Holly before season 5 reintroduced the character — and aged her up for the story.
“I think the show ends in the best way for everybody,” Buono told Us about how Stranger Things sticks the landing. “With every great show, you can’t satisfy everybody. But I do think that the audiences will be very happy.”
Buono praised creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer for doing “an amazing job” with how they ended the season “for everybody.”
“I remember the read through before we got started [on season 5] and we were all together as a cast. That was a great moment. We embarked on what was going to be a full year, which is really unheard of — especially in television. We all thought, ‘That’s going to be a long time.’ But I felt like it went by really fast,” she noted. “And the last day of the show for me was the very last day of shooting.”
Buono recalled the “very emotional” day. “Everybody was there, the families were there and I was in the second to last setup for the very end of the show,” she told Us. “So it was really a beautiful moment. Because in season 1, I was the first day, first scene and first take. For me, it came full circle at the end. It was just a matter of getting out by trying not to cry and getting to deliver my lines.”
Stranger Things returns to Netflix with Volume 2 on December 25 and the finale drops December 31.
