Photography: Jesse Volk. Styling: Penny Lovell. Hair: Buddy Porter. Makeup: Jo Strettell.
TV: What did an average day on set look like for you? Did you start with a few hours of school and then film?
NF: School, school, school, school, school. No, so I would get onto set, I would be chop-chopped into costume. It would be like, “Okay, we’ve got to be on set in five minutes,” and then I’d get on set, and then I’d do two hours of school. I would then do some filming, and then, when they’d be flipping a lens or changing the shot, I’d go do some school. So I’d be bawling my eyes out [for a scene], then learning how to count in Russian, [back] to bawling my eyes out again, which was pretty funny.
TV: That’s so interesting that you were learning Russian, given the Stranger Things tie-in. Is that a language you chose?
NF: Yeah, I take Russian. We were given the choice in year seven, so sixth grade, between Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and German. And me and my friend figured out that it was the most statistically probable that we would be together if we both put Russian. We did end up together, but we were learning Russian.
NF: Jake and I, we were kind of the two new kids on the block. We had a really nice relationship on set. But also off set, we would go for dinner with him and his family. He’s such a wonderful guy, and he’s so amazing in this season.
Jake, who plays Derek in Stranger Things 5, tells Teen Vogue about his “big Hollywood” debut.
TV: In the scenes with Jamie Campbell Bower, you are one of the few who gets to act with him when he’s not the scary version of Vecna.
NF: I adored working with Jamie. I never really saw him as this scary monster figure he plays because, before we started filming, I went out to Atlanta for a week to do a costume fitting, etc., and in the middle of a fitting, Jamie knocked on the door and said, “Hey, I just want to say hi to Nell, but I’ll wait until she’s finished.” He ended up waiting for, like, 45 minutes when he was ready to go home at the end of his day, just to say hi to me and that he was really looking forward to meeting me, which started off what ended up being a really nice connection.
TV: What are you into other than acting? What kind of hobbies do you have?
NF: I’m a massive nerd. I take Russian, as you know. I also take Greek, Ancient Greek, and Latin. I love my school. I also do rock climbing, like bouldering. I did that a lot in Atlanta because there was a wall right near where I lived.
TV: Had you played Dungeons & Dragons before?
NF: I hadn’t, but I actually have started. And my little Holly the Heroic figurine, I got to take her home; I got to keep her, which was really sweet. I’ve started playing D & D with a couple of my friends, and it’s so much fun. It’s nothing like any game I’ve played before, because you just get to make it all up.
TV: Through this filming experience, doing all these interviews at this time, how have you grown as a person? How do you think you’ve changed?
NF: I think I really feel like an actor now. I’ve done movies and TV shows before, but I always slightly felt like someone who had just stumbled onto a film set. But now I feel like I belong here, and I’m here to stay.
