Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery recently revealed his terrifying scene involving Billy and Max in season four was mostly filmed over Zoom.
There have been many memorable Stranger Things characters throughout the show’s four seasons, but perhaps none more striking than Billy Hargrove (played by Dacre Montgomery). Billy was introduced in season two of the Netflix show as the older step-brother of Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), who got a job as a lifeguard and earned a reputation as a bit of a bully.
Eventually, he came under the control of the Mind Flayer, who used him as a vessel to gather the civilians of Hawkins. He gained a degree of superhuman ability and almost overpowered Eleven to hand her over to his controller. However, El manage to reach Billy’s humanity and he was able to briefly shake off his possession. He then sacrifices himself to protect the others and dies after apologizing to Max for the harm he’d caused.
Billy makes a brief – yet terrifying – return in Season Four
Billy’s death had a profound impact on Max, and she continued to be plagued by her brother’s death all the way into season four. In the fourth episode of the last season, Max arrives at Billy’s grave and reads a posthumous letter to him, wishing they had gotten a chance to be better siblings to each other.
Vecna then uses a hallucination of Billy to taunt Max before attempting to kill her, but she is saved when Lucas, Dustin and Steve play Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) which allows her to be free from Vecna’s influence.
Dacre Montgomery filmed his season four scenes in a very unusual way
It was a brief but chilling cameo from Montgomery, who recently revealed the somewhat unusual way he filmed his season four scene.
He revealed that he wasn’t able to shoot the scenes in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it was directed over Zoom instead.
“I knew that they wanted to figure out a way to weave him back into the storyline, especially for Sadie’s character, Max. But I was even more surprised when obviously the pandemic was happening,” Montgomery told Awards Daily. “I was in Australia, and it was very difficult at the time to get out of Oz and into the US and then back into Australia. So there was a point where I was going to try and have to figure it out, but the Duffer Brothers actually were sort of kind enough to say they’d make it happen in Oz.”
The Stranger Things set was brought to him in Australia
The solution was for Montgomery to film his new scenes in his home in Perth, Western Australia. Apparently, producers shipped in a wig and prosthetics and arranged for set construction to accommodate the needs of the scene.
Director Shawn Levy then zoomed in on an iPad to direct Montgomery in the scene, which already included half of Sadie Sink’s pre-recorded lines. However, the actress obviously couldn’t be there so instead they used a tennis ball as a stand-in to align the eyelines properly.
“It was an incredibly unique experience, but nice to do it at home. I’ve never really worked in Australia other than working on Elvis during the pandemic,” Montgomery added. “So not only was I in Oz, but I was home in Perth, which is just so rare for me. So many of the local crew were from Perth, so it was actually a really nice opportunity to be at home and work at home.”
It certainly goes to show the power of technology and the creative methods producers can go to to get the scene they require. Billy’s scene with Max is one of the most gripping and gut-wrenching moments in the whole of season four, and you’d never have guessed it was (mostly) done over Zoom.
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