Content

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Contents

Preface

1000 Finn Wolfhard Facts

Authors Note

Photo Credit

AUTHORS NOTE

Finn Wolfhard is a popular young actor and musician. In 2016 he rose to fame aged 13 playing Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things. Finn has many interesting things to say about acting, music and being a celebrity. With this book I hope to give some interesting information on his life and career.

PREFACE

Think you know everything there is to know about about Finn Wolfhard? Well, think again. The book which follows contains all you could ever wish to know about this young superstar. Facts about Stranger Things, fashion, music, likes & dislikes, food, career, background, movies, Calpurnia, Stephen King's IT, lifestyle, quotes, famous friends and so much more all awaits in 1000 Finn Wolfhard Facts. Finn Wolfhard is definitely one of the more enigmatic cast members in Stranger Things and admits that he could happily live without fame. Hopefully this book will provide an entertaining and insightful extended profile of Finn Wolfhard with plenty of fascinating trivia and things you didn't know.

1000 FINN WOLFHARD FACTS

(1) Finn Wolfhard was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 2002.

(2) Finn has a brother five years his senior.

(3) Finn is of French, German, and Jewish descent.

(4) Finn went to Catholic school.

(5) Finn's father was a screenwriter and so Finn always had an interest in acting and films. Vancouver has a thriving film and television production industry so it was perhaps almost inevitable that Finn would become an actor.

(6) Finn got his first acting gig through Craigslist.

(7) Finn said he took a summer acting class as a kid but didn't think it helped him much.

(8) Finn said he didn't like school very much because he was bullied. "Yeah, I was bullied at school. I was bullied a lot in elementary school. It’s awful."

(9) Finn made his television debut as Zoran in The 100.

(10) Another of Finn's early roles was in the popular TV show Supernatural.

(11) Finn appeared in his first music video in 2012.

(12) At the time of writing, Finn has appeared in ten music videos.

(13) In 2015, Finn was cast as Richie Tozier in a film version of Stephen King's IT. Finn was cast by Cary Fukunaga - who was slated to direct IT at the time.

(14) Cary Fukunaga left the production of IT and had be replaced by another director. This meant there was a delay and during that period Finn took part in open auditions for Stranger Things. Had there not been a change of director and delay in the production of IT then Finn would never have been cast as Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things because he simply would not have been available.

"I had actually been hired to do IT before Stranger Things," said Finn. "This was when Cary Fukunaga was going to direct and then pulled out. From there I got Stranger Things."

(15) Cary Fukunaga was replaced by Andy Muschietti as the director of IT. Finn actually had to audition again for Muschietti but it went well and for the second (and thankfully final) time he was given the part of Richie Tozier. "When It came back with Andy Muschietti directing, I got the opportunity to audition again."

(16) Finn was born on the 23rd of December. That makes him a Capricorn.

(17) Stranger Things was originally titled Montauk. Montauk is a hamlet at the east end of the Long Island peninsula and famed for its beaches. Ross and Matt Duffer, the brothers who created Stranger Things, were very inspired by Steven Spielberg's classic movie Jaws in their early plans for the show.

"Jaws was our favorite movie of all time," said Matt Duffer, "so we liked the sort of coastal setting that allowed, but for production reasons it started to look more and more unfeasible."

(18) One of the main reasons why the show was originally going to be set in Montauk is Camp Hero. Camp Hero (aka Montauk Air Force Station) is an abandoned military base in Montauk which gave rise to all manner of conspiracy theories. It was alleged in a book called The Montauk Project that Camp Hero used kidnapped children in experiments which included telekinesis and time travel. Most of the conspiracy theories involving Montauk are obviously considered to be fiction but the Duffers felt Camp Hero (with its many urban legends and alleged secrets) would be a great backdrop for a sci-fi fantasy horror show.

(19) Most of the cast in Stranger Things were hired when the show was still going to be called Montauk.

(20) Stranger Things is science fiction horror show that streams on Netflix. It is a love letter to 80s pop culture - most specifically Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, and John Carpenter. Its range of influences is vast though and takes in everything from John Hughes to Lovecraft to Clive Barker.

(21) Hundreds of boys were tested for the younger roles in Stranger Things and required to read scenes from Stand By Me and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in auditions.

(22) The part of Mike Wheeler was exceptionally important in season one of Stranger Things. Mike has the most lines of any character in season one and is at the heart of the story.

(23) Finn eventually won the pivotal role of Mike Wheeler despite a heavy cold which forced him to record an out of focus audition from his bed.

(24) The casting director on Stranger Things said she liked Finn because of the nervous energy he projected in his auditions. She thought this was a good fit for the character of Mike Wheeler.

(25) The Duffer Brothers said they took an instant liking to Finn because he knew a lot about eighties movies.

(26) The Duffer Brothers say that, out of the four lead boys in Stranger Things, Mike Wheeler is the most like they were at that age.

(27) Millie Bobby Brown (who was cast as Eleven in Stranger Things) had to play scenes with various boys who were in contention to play Mike Wheeler during the casting process. When she played a scene with Finn and had excellent chemistry with him the casting department knew they had found their Mike Wheeler.

(28) In the first season of Stranger Things, Eleven is a girl with telekinetic powers who escapes from a government lab where she is held captive. Mike Wheeler and his friends Dustin and Lucas are searching for their missing friend Will Byers and find Eleven hiding in the woods. Mike secretly shelters Eleven in his basement and they learn that Eleven might be able to help them find Will.

(29) The relationship between Mike Wheeler and Eleven in season one is influenced by Tomas Alfredson's 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In.

Let the Right One In is also set in the early eighties and concerns two eleven year-old children - a boy named Oskar and a girl named Eli - who form a close bond. Oskar is bullied at school and Eli is a vampire. As with Eleven, Eli has to stay hidden and doesn't really understand the normal mundane everyday world. Like the character of Eleven, Eli also has special powers. The Rubik’s cube is an important part of the bond between the characters in Let the Right One In and we also see Mike Wheeler play with a Rubik’s cube in season one of Stranger Things.

The connection between Stranger Things and Let the Right One In is confirmed when the boys pretend Eleven is their cousin from Sweden in order to smuggle her into school and use Mr Clarke's ham radio.

(30) Finn's older brother Nick is a voice actor.

(31) Finn, as a name, is not short for anything. That's his real name.

(32) Despite appearing in the movie adaptation, Finn never actually read Stephen King's novel IT. This is a famously long book. "We all tried, like, we should all do it, right?" said Finn. "And got two chapters in and thought - Yeah, it's really long, and I don't know if I have time to finish this. We also thought we should get more of an organic feel to it, so we didn't copy from the book. We tried but failed. My cousin did because she wanted to read something I was going to be in. That's dedication."

(33) Finn has a strong (and deliberate you would imagine) resemblance in season one of Stranger Things to Henry Thomas in the 1984 kids spy film Cloak & Dagger. Mike Wheeler and Davey Osborne (the character played by Henry Thomas in Cloak & Dagger) have the same hairstyle, brandish a walkie-talkie, and wear similar clothes.

(34) Finn likes to play basketball in his spare time.

(35) In season one of Stranger Things, Mike Wheeler is essentially Elliott in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The Duffer Brothers had to find their own Henry Thomas.

(36) Finn has famously high cheekbones.

(37) At the time of writing, Finn is 5'11. He was obviously a lot smaller than this in the first two seasons of Stranger Things.

(38) In the pitch for Montauk (as it was called before it became Stranger Things), Mike Wheeler is described in the following way - 'Mike Wheeler is twelve. He is a cute kid, but a birthmark on his left cheek leads to much bullying and near-crippling insecurity. He has never had a first kiss, much less a girlfriend. He escapes his insecurities through reading fantasy novels, spending time with his three best friends (Lucas, Dustin, and Will), and retreating into his own vivid imagination. The Dungeon Master of his Dungeons and Dragons group, he writes sprawling adventures with fantastical monsters. When he finds himself on a real adventure, facing real monsters, he will discover a courage he didn't know he had. By the end, he will even kiss a girl.'

(39) Finn is known for his curly hair.

(40) Finn loves frogs and launched his own frog apparel company.

(41) The pitch document for Montauk included a number of elements that were later discarded for Stranger Things. In the pitch document story notes for Montauk, Mike Wheeler ventures into the Upside Down to search for Will Byers. This never actually happened though in Stranger Things (as it became).

(42) In the pitch document, Montauk is set in the fall of 1980. The pitch proposed that the music in the show should be a synth score inspired by John Carpenter's The Fog and The Thing. It also proposed that a sequel (a second season of Montauk) would take place in 1990 when the kids are now young adults and must reunite to fight the strange forces threatening their village again. This was patently inspired by Stephen King's IT and another element in the pitch that never happened in the end.

It is sometimes reported that Montauk was pitched as an anthology show but the evidence seems to contradict this. The pitch book for Montauk clearly proposed one single story and one set of characters. The vague notion of setting a second season of the show in 1990 ten years later quickly became obsolete when Stranger Things began shooting and the Duffers saw how good the child actors were. The notion of having a second season of Strangers Things with the likes of Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Gaten Matarazzo replaced by older actors was unthinkable.

(43) The Duffers suffered many rejections when they tried to pitch Montauk (eventually to become Stranger Things) in the entertainment industry. The Duffers later said that what seemed to put people off was the fact that this proposed show had a gang of children as major characters. Network executives obviously didn't think this concept would work.

(44) Finn said he was more scared of Pennywise the Clown than the Demogorgon in Stranger Things.

(45) The first scene ever shot for Stranger Things was the first scene you see in the show - the Dungeons & Dragons game in Mike's basement.

(46) Mike Wheeler and his friends are huge fans of Dungeons & Dragons - especially in season one of stranger Things. They have marathon Dungeons & Dragons sessions in Mike's basement. Dungeons & Dragons is a roll the dice fantasy board game first released in 1974. The Duffers never played this game as children but wanted to use it as a means to convey the friendship of the boys in Stranger Things. The children in Stranger Things use Dungeons & Dragons terms to understand the strange happenings in Hawkins and this transfers as a type of shorthand to convey information to the viewer too.

(47) The game the boys are playing at the start of The Vanishing of Will Byers (which is the first ever episode of Stranger Things) foreshadows the plot of season one.

(48) Finn really dislikes bananas. "I don’t like the smell or the texture. I’m not alone on that! I know it’s a weird thing I have against them. I guess I’m going to have to start eating them one day, otherwise, I’ll die from too little potassium or whatever."

(49) Mike Wheeler was supposed to wear an E.T - The Extra-Terrestrial watch in the first season of Stranger Things but they didn't manage to obtain the rights.

(50) When Stranger Things began production, there wasn't much buzz about the show in the online trade entertainment publications. What few reports there were tended to refer to it as the 'new Winona Ryder show'.

(51) Finn had some mint tic tacs before the scene near the end of season one of Stranger Things where Mike kisses Eleven on the cheek. He wanted to make sure his breath was super fresh.

(52) Finn said he loved the concept of Stranger Things from the start because he is a fan of retro pop culture. "The synopsis called it a love-letter to 80s teen drama, horror and sci-fi. I was like, ‘I’m in.’ I love retro culture. I love retro games; I love retro music. And so I was sort of in that boat from the beginning. I didn’t really need any proper training."

(53) Finn said he has always been wary of clowns - so appearing in IT was no picnic.

(54) Finn has dark brown eyes.

(55) Mike Wheeler is the first character in Stranger Things to use the term the Upside Down.

(56) Finn said it was somewhat overwhelming when the first season of Stranger Things became such a phenomenon. A few times some autograph hunters followed him home - which he found quite alarming.

(57) Finn as Mike Wheeler has 433 lines in the first season of Stranger Things. This is more than any other cast member.

(58) Finn's great-great aunt was a silent film and theatre actress.

(59) It's plainly no coincidence that Spielberg's E.T. and Stranger Things both have characters called Mike and Steve.

(60) Finn said his lucky number is seven.

(61) Finn is a fan of Sushi.

(62) Finn is a fan of the vintage pop group Tears for Fears.

(63) Finn said that because Mike in Stranger Things and Richie in Stephen King's IT are very different characters, it was a fun acting challenge to play both roles around the same time.

(64) The children in the cast had to arrange their schooling around Stranger Things and were assigned tutors and a classroom on the set.

(65) Although set in Indiana, Stranger Things is produced in Atlanta, Georgia.

(66) Finn said he likes shooting Stranger Things in Atlanta for many reasons but especially because they have a great vinyl record store he likes to visit.

(67) Finn said that Barcelona is one of his favourite cities.

(68) Stranger Things was a genuine word of mouth phenomenon. The first season did not have a huge amount of publicity or promotion but positive reviews encouraged viewers to seek it out.

(69) The kids in the cast started a group chat called Stranger Texts.

(70) Season one costume designer Kimberly Adams said that social class was a salient factor in choosing the clothes specific characters would wear. "Will is the youngest in the family. His mom doesn't have a lot of money. He would have had hand-me-downs. I really tried to get, same with his brother as well, just that kind of that odd, ill-fitting, not trendy-of-the-time kind of fit. Different than somebody like Mike, whose family was upper-middle class and conservative. He would have had newer things for the school year."

(71) The kids in Stranger Things were given relatively little makeup because the Duffers thought it would be more realistic if they had a few spots and blemishes.

(72) Finn said he is an outdoors person and likes to go out and play sports.

(73) Finn as Mike Wheeler has seventy lines in The Weirdo on Maple Street. This is the most lines any character has in any episode of season one of Stranger Things.

(74) The parents and siblings of the children in the Stranger Things cast were a regular presence on the set during season one.

(75) Finn considers himself to be something of a donut connoisseur.

(76) In the Stranger Things season one finale, Eleven is exhausted after dispatching the agents in the corridor and has to be carried by Dustin. In the script it is Mike who carries Eleven but Finn found it too difficult to run and carry Millie Bobby Brown at the same time. Gaten Matarazzo had no such trouble.

(77) Finn was the lead singer for a Vancouver band named Calpurnia from 2017 to 2019. The band released an EP and did several famous covers.

(78) Of the end of his band Calpurnia, Finn said - "Part of the reason why Calpurnia began to become a chore instead of [making] fun music is that we had to tour in order to make the label money. Obviously, that’s how they make money, and they need to survive. But I can’t always tour because I act, and that is first and foremost and the reason why people give me the opportunities. [Touring] became really hard to do."

(79) Finn is now in a

Imprint

Publisher: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Publication Date: 12-05-2021
ISBN: 978-3-7554-0195-7

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