"You're thirteen years old. Your emotions rocket from total devastation to euphoria and backall day, every daybut today, right now, life is pretty fucking bad. It's November 2015 and you're eight-hundred-some miles away from home, living with your mom in a god-awful extended-stay hotel. Two doors in this glorified closetone goes outside, the other to the bathroom. Your family can't afford anything better."
"New Jersey misses you, but you're a young actor with real talent, and it's taking you places. He did multiple nights on Broadway, including a stint in Les Miserables. Then a different sort of audition came alongfor a sci-fi show called Stranger Things, which hailed from the ascendant streaming service Netflixand you actually got the part. The cost: a seven-month shoot in Atlanta. Petrifying, but you take it."
"Two months in and you're living two lives. On set, you play a goofball kid named Dustin who's not that unlike yourself, and it's the greatest feeling in the world. Away from the cameras, you're failing classes. It's too much. You can't go home. Your family doesn't have the money to drive or fly back either. So you're there. In the shitty extended-stay hotel. School, work, hotel, repeat. For another five months. An eternity for a kid about to hit puberty."
A thirteen-year-old actor leaves home for a seven-month shoot in Atlanta after landing a role on Stranger Things. The actor previously performed on Broadway, including Les Miserables, and experiences on-set joy playing Dustin. Off set, the actor endures failing classes, financial hardship, and cramped living in an extended-stay hotel with his mother. Tensions escalate into a crying fight and a near decision to quit, but the actor and his mother decide to continue. Over time, the situation slowly improves and the actor persists with the production.
Read at www.esquire.com
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