Stranger Things might be the name of his show, but Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) has experienced some of the strangest things you can as a teenage celebrity. One encounter with a fan in particular shook him…because she was three times his age.
Appearing on the Inside of You podcast (via Us Weekly), Matarazzo – who was 13 when Stranger Things premiered – said he met one fan who really caught him off guard…in about the creepiest way possible. “I did one very recently — and this is not very funny, but the reactions around it were quite funny — where this woman in her 40s said straight up, ‘I’ve had a crush on you since you were 13.’ And I was like, ‘That’s upsetting.’” But it gets worse…As Matarazzo added of his middle-aged Stranger Things fan, “She was like, ‘I’m aware of the age difference.’ And then I was like, ‘Alright.’ And her daughter was with her, and her daughter goes, ‘Mom, what the f*ck?’ I swear to God.”
Not that we need to even really ask this, but what is wrong with some fans? Maybe the woman meant, as Matarazzo pointed out, that she thought he was adorable on Stranger Things, but there is an entirely different way to say that – especially when the actor is in front of his own mom!
Matarazzo, showing genuine maturity for someone who started in the business as a pre-teen before landing Stranger Things, is also well aware that he hasn’t had a normal life, whether he’s being hit on by wacko moms or not. “When you are that young, you can’t really reflect or understand how incredible that [level of success] is for your family and you…But then there is a part of it where you are that young and you are suddenly the breadwinner for your family when you are 12. That is not something that is normal.”
Gaten Matarazzo will return to the realm of abnormal when Stranger Things sometime next year (it’s not unreasonable to expect summer or October). While various delays due to everything from Covid-19 to the dual WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes have postponed the past couple of seasons, we have at least had some updates from the Duffer Brothers as of late by way of new photos. There has also been talk that this fifth and final season will offer some character dynamics that will give a season one feel. Hey, that’s when this lady started crushing on Dustin!