Gaten Matarazzo, star of Stranger Things, isn't a fan of fame, or, you know, the big scary "f-word" in Hollywood.
"I do it for the work," he told E! News interviewer Jason Kennedy at the 2017 American Music Awards. He added that he doesn't even talk about it, really — the "f-word" is taboo, at least in his world.
The 15-year-old and his Stranger Things co-stars are card-carrying A-listers these days, thanks to the popularity of the Netflix show. In the weeks since the show's season second premiered, Matarazzo and his co-stars Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, and Noah Schnapp appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Late Late Show With James Corden, not to mention Good Morning America. That's pretty exciting for a 15-year-old, but Matarazzo is solely here for the craft of acting.
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As for the real "f-word," it's more likely that Matarazzo is okay with that one. In Stranger Things 2, Matarazzo's character Dustin Henderson is pretty foul-mouthed, letting loose "shit" or "son of a bitch!" at nearly every turn. (To be fair, there are a lot of instances in which a swear word is absolutely necessary on Stranger Things.) It's a strange world where "fame" is more taboo than "fuck," but Matarazzo is a child star — his world is unavoidably topsy-turvy. That's not always easy, especially for someone who's not yet 18.
"[Acting] can definitely be a difficult thing when you’re trying to do school and work at the same time," Matarazzo told Paste Magazine in June. "I have that thought a lot, 'How did I end up here?' But I just take it and embrace it and roll with it as much as I can. I don’t do it for photo shoots or fame; I just do it because I love acting."
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