For most people, Stranger Things just ended.

It still feels close. Like something you could fall back into and nothing would have shifted. Dustin is still there. The world is still intact. Frozen in a loop, waiting to be replayed.

But for Gaten Matarazzo, it ended a year and a half ago.

Because what he was a part of wasn’t just a show. It was nearly a decade of his life, starting at the exact moment most people are still figuring out how to exist. The kind of experience that only really has parallels in things like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Not just because of scale, but because of duration. Because of what it asks from the people inside of it.

“I think it’s a phenomenon people are very intrigued by, watching people grow as actors and as people over the course of years. There’s so much focus on reminiscing, on remembering youth, and the whole point of it is that it’s in the past. You don’t really get to relive it. So being able to put it in a time capsule that you can go back and observe consistently, even if it’s through the lens of other people, I think that’s inherently fascinating and strange, but in a fun way.”

The audience gets to revisit it.

He had to live it forward.

“When you’re 13, it’s basically about building habits. It’s about establishing the tools for how you’re going to respond to things. And when you’re doing that in front of people, you learn to be aware of what people might think of you with whatever you say or do, or the decisions that you make. That kind of becomes essential to feeling like you’re making a good decision.”

That awareness doesn’t switch off when the cameras do.

It becomes part of how you move.

So when something like Stranger Things ends, the casts loses a job, a character, an entire world.

“It’s been a weird adjustment, for sure. Those first few months were so bizarre. Everybody was saying, ‘Relax, don’t work, don’t do anything for a while. Just enjoy spare time.’ And I was so miserable during that. I was coming off of a year of some of the most high-pressure work I had ever been on, and going right from that to having really nothing to do, I just don’t do well when I’m not on a schedule.”

“I tend to let the pendulum swing. I either work my ass off or I just kind of hyper-procrastinate and let days get away from me. I’m trying to find that balance of being relaxingly productive. You can take it easy and still feel like you’re getting energy out of something, contributing to your mental health, your physical health, and what you like to do creatively, without overexerting yourself. I just didn’t really know how to do that yet.”

There’s no clean transition out of something that all-encompassing.

Just a stretch of time where you’re forced to figure out what you are without it.

And for him, that doesn’t immediately look like clarity. It looks like restlessness.

“Late spring came around and I was just so antsy. I was like, ‘Anything, please. I want to do anything.’ Then the pizza movie came around, and I read the script and thought, ‘Oh man, if there was anything to jump into right now, this is it.’ It felt like the perfect best of both worlds. Something new and fun and challenging, but also just a blast. Like summer camp.”

Not just what something is, but whether it actually feels aligned.

“The one thing that makes it difficult is that it’s such a public affair. I would probably jump into murky waters headfirst if it wasn’t. But you have to learn to do the things that feel right to you, despite what people may feel or think about them. I’m not good at that yet, but I want to be.”

“I kind of gravitate towards a lot of weird things right now. I would really like to get used to people being like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ That stings a little, but I have to be okay with that. Because if I’m not, I’m probably just going to stay in the same place.”

These new roles and projects aren’t about “reinvention” for him. It’s about growth.

And growth happens in discomfort.

“I don’t want to keep playing Dustin a bunch. I feel like when you’re comfortable, you don’t learn anything. And it’s never going to be fun.”

So instead, he’s choosing things that expose him.

“I will be singing more very soon, and I’m terrified of it. I don’t know why I keep doing it. I don’t know why people keep asking me and I keep saying yes. It just feels like the ultimate challenge to me.”

“There’s something less subjective about singing. There’s a floor and a ceiling. You can clearly hear if somebody doesn’t have their shit together. And I don’t want to be in that position. I’ve been in that position, and it’s very scary. Not because of what people say, but because I don’t feel like I’m where I should be.”

That fear isn’t something he’s avoiding.

It’s the reason he’s moving toward it.

“I would like to jump into things where I have no clue how to tackle this right now. I’m kind of looking away from the things that come easy. I want to be uncomfortable for a bit.”

There’s no long-term map attached to that.

“I don’t do well going over a five-year plan. This job is so on a whim. You think you have time, and then something comes through and it’s like, ‘Great, we’re filming in two weeks.’ I think I’ll find what my goals look like. I just don’t know yet.”

For Gaten uncertainty doesn’t feel like a gap right now. It feels like space, it feels like freedom.

Because for the first time in a long time, nothing is already decided for him.

No 10 year commitment to a show or character.