STRANGER THINGS’ Star Natalia Dyer Says Show’s Young Stars Are Oversexualized
By Cooper Dowd, Staff Writer
STRANGER THINGS star Natalia Dyer addressed the oversexualization she witnesses in movies and television and says she wants to protect the younger stars.
The popular science fiction show and Netflix Original launched four years ago. Since then, the actors have garnered much attention from the public eye, which Dyer says puts the kids in a position to be oversexualized.
“I generally feel like, to me, it’s oversexualizing them,” Dyer said. “I feel protective over the younger kids even though they’re not kids anymore, they’re teens.
Dyer notes that she has considered the young actors on the show friends from the beginning. Now that the show is successful, she wants to protect them from oversexualization, which she claims is a “culture issue.”
Among the youngest in the cast are Noah Schnapp, 15, Millie Bobby Brown, 16, and Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo at 17.
“They’re all great people and all having to grow up in very crazy circumstances,” Dyer continued. “As a private person, I just feel like, leave people alone—unless you’re talking about their work or what they want to talk about. It’s a very tricky and complex issue.”
The 25-year-old actress stated that culture is quick to oversexualize young actors, saying, “There must be a bigger concept behind it as to why.”
Dyer also opened up about other, less harmful, attention that she and her co-stars receive from fans.
“It’s lovely to meet fans, but it’s very like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just want to go to the grocery store and get some milk. I don’t want to take a photo everywhere I go,'” Dyer shared. “At first, it was jarring. There are fans everywhere. It’s a difficult thing to navigate. It’s been like five years since we started STRANGER THINGS, and I’ve become more confident in how I handle situations. At first, I had quite a few bouts of anxiety just as the show was coming out because there’s this mentality of letting people down and not giving enough.”
MOVIEGUIDE® previously reported on STRANGER THINGS and advised Christians to use discernment as the show progressively became more flippant with profanity and obscenity.
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