‘Stranger Things’ Documentary Director Answers Burning Questions
I learned a lot from watching Martina Radwan’s Stranger Things documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, which is currently streaming on Netflix. (OK, so I learned five things.) I learned even more from speaking with the filmmaker herself.
One thing I don’t need anyone to teach me is that Stranger Things fans — the very online ones especially — don’t want to hear from me right now, but they’re dying to hear from Radwan. Without any further adieu, read the THR Q&A below.
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How big of a fan of Stranger Things were you before this experience?
I was a huge fan. I watched season one twice. I was— like, everybody else, I was waiting for the next season to come out. So it was really a nice surprise when it was like, “Oh, I’m gonna be part of this.”
Do you know if Eleven is dead or alive?
I can give that— the whole point of it is that you have to understand it for yourself, whatever you want to see. It’s like, whatever you believe— whatever you need to believe, I think that’s the whole point of it. It’s not a definitive answer. You have to participate. You can’t just sit and watch and get spoon fed.
I’m not asking you for the answer, but did the Duffer Brothers ever say, “Just so we’re all on the same page in the writers room, Eleven is dead,” or “Eleven is alive”?
They do say it in the sense of, like, “She represents magic, and magic has to die for everyone to move on. But you hold it in your heart, you never let go of that.” So I think that is the answer.
You’ve got super fans pausing and zooming in on individuals frames of your documentary. One allegedly shows one of the Duffers with a ChatGPT tab open on their computer. In your presence, what did they use ChatGPT for?
I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?
I’m personally not, but the internet seems sure.
Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, “We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.” But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?
I do.
How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.
I don’t think many fans truly believe the Duffers had gen-AI write their scripts, I think it’s more of an aversion to the use of the technology in general in Hollywood.
Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools … while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.
So just to button-up the topic: You didn’t witness misuse of generative-AI in the writers room?
No, of course not. I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation. People think “writers room” means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange. It’s story development. And, of course, you go places in your creative mind and then you come back (to the script).
I think being in the writers room is such a privilege and such a gift to be able to witness that.
(Netflix and the Duffers did not respond to The Hollywood Reporter‘s request for comment on the ChatGPT question.)
I’m curious about the dynamics in the room. It did seem weird to fans — and to me too — that there were no monsters in The Abyss. Were we close to getting bats and dogs and maybe demos in The Abyss?
Making a documentary is a moment in time, right? They didn’t write the script in, like, the four days that I was in the writers room. That’s a long, long process, and it has ups and downs and ins and outs. The reason why I included (that discussion) in the doc was to show the audience how much thinking goes into that, and that the thinking is never just— nothing goes streamlined straightforward. Yhe reason why I included it in the doc is to show how complicated it is, how much you have to think about all the aspects of a story — particularly if you have 19 characters and you have 12 locations. So, none of these decisions are easily made. Every decision goes through so many processes.
So you spent four days in the writers room and literal hundreds on set. Why that breakdown?
Again, it’s a decision. You know, we decide these things. It’s like, I decide where to go. The way that TV shows work is, like, you never have all the scripts. The writers who always works parallel to the shooting, which is what The Duffers also say in the doc. They did that since season one — that’s why they have guest directors. So obviously, in the time where they had the guest directors, they were writing, and I was shooting with the guest directors. Sometimes I would go into the writers room, but it all happens parallel and you decide where you’re going to go.
Were you blocked from any days in the writers room or on set?
No, it was all my choice.
Were Netflix executives often on the set?
They were in and out, like every other set. Every TV show works like that.
Did you get the sense that script delays created the three-part split and this specific release schedule?
No, that was always a plan that has nothing to do with the script.
The doc has at least one scene in which it is clear Netflix was becoming impatient with the time it took them to get scripts. How did you find that dynamic between creators and corporation?
It’s so hard to take that out of context, because again, on every film set you have that situation where, like, you’re waiting for the script, you’re rewriting the script. It happens all the time. The biggest pressure point on any film set is time, which equals money. There’s this constant pressure point of, like, “Are we going to make the day? Are we going to get it done?”
In particular, this is not a fiction film where you’re like, well, “Let’s see when we’re going to be done, and then we’re going to find the festival.” [The Duffers] had their airing day. So that’s a whole different pressure, right? Because you really have no wiggle room. So it wasn’t that Netflix was particularly pressuring them … it happens all the time.
Another scene in the doc that fans are freaking out over is in the hospital’s laundry room, when Maya Hawke reminds Sean Levy that the other kids don’t know there’s a relationship between her character Robin and Vickie (Amybeth McNulty)…
Well, again, one of the reasons why I included that moment in the doc is to show the creative process, right? Like the script says, “XYZ,” but every actor brings in another interpretation. And so yes, in the storyline, it wasn’t that she was reminding anyone, it was that she’s like, “I would like to play it like that because not everybody knows,” right?
And the reason why I really liked that moment was also to show Sean Levy’s openness to really discuss it — the director and the actor discussing a moment of motivation and like, how much should she show it? Because everything is a degree, and what’s the believability that these two girls are holding hands before their friends who don’t know [they’re together]? I think what I’m struggling with that— in the creative field are not black and white. It’s not just like, is it this or this? It’s like, it’s probably somewhere in the middle, a gradation, of like, she wanted to figure out how much and Sean Levy was enjoying the conversation. And they came to a conclusion together.
Another scene in the doc that depicts Levy’s levelheaded problem solving is how he handled the thin consistency of the practical goo Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy (Natalie Dyer) nearly drowned in as the Upside Down melted. Did he end using VFX to fix that?
Just on a couple closeups.
It’s this whole, like, what is filmmaking? So much of filmmaking really is problem solving, and problems solved together. And yes, things sometimes don’t work out exactly the way you were envisioning it. Building that set was such a— nobody does that anymore. It’s literally the end of an era. I hope it’s not. I hope people still build sets like that. Having the goo be practical— it’s all for the actors, so that the actors have something to interact with. But also for the crew and everybody else who— like, this is a real environment, so you can feel it. It’s a different engagement than just doing in front of blue screens.
Did the Duffers get to screen your doc before their finale?
I mean, they were very much part of it, yeah.
Did they have notes?
They were very happy with it. So, I mean, you know, there are the usual notes like you all have, but nothing, where we had to pivot.
No “take this shot out”?
(Radwan shakes her head “no.”) They’re very gracious. Once they trust you, they let you work.
This “Conformity Gate” conspiracy theory, which I think was really all about the timing of the announcement of your documentary, has been debunked. But was there ever talk about doing a bonus finale?
No, no. And again, I can’t talk for them — not do I want to — but no.
We’ve spoken about a lot of what I’ve seen online, but what kind of fan response to the doc has reached you personally?
What I find interesting is that people talk about things that are not there, when, like— why are we discussing things that are not there, and not what’s actually there? You know, that’s new. I understand — fans are so invested, the show has has such a longevity — it’s like 10 years — and so I understand that fans who were really, really invested are sad that it’s over. They don’t want it to be over. They hope for more. I get all that.
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