ORLANDO, Fla. – “Stranger Things” wrapped up its fifth and final season, and one of the show’s actors has a special connection to Central Florida.
Clayton Royal Johnson, who plays Andy, is originally from Orlando and recently shared his experience on the hit Netflix series.
Johnson landed his role on “Stranger Things” after working on a smaller Nickelodeon show called “I Am Frankie.” At the time, he was working at Texas Roadhouse and sent in a simple audition tape.
“A week later, I was at Disney. I got pinned,” he said. “And a week after that, my agent called me. He was like, ‘Hey, can you play basketball?’
Those basketball scenes in “Stranger Things” were physically demanding. Johnson trained for about two months with professional coaches and even a Harlem Globetrotter, despite having no prior experience.
“The drills were tough. I can barely dribble a ball,” he admitted.
Filming the fourth season took nearly two years, partly due to COVID-19 delays. Johnson was just 18 when he started filming season four and is now 24, highlighting the long commitment involved.
One memorable scene involved his character pushing Dustin against a locker, and another where he was thrown against a wall.
Johnson revealed that his stunt double performed the fall, sparing him injury. The locker scene required multiple takes to get the sound just right, with co-star Gaten Matarazzo encouraging him to push harder.
A particularly challenging moment came during a scene where Johnson’s character gets spat in the face with fake blood.
“We had to do that scene like 10, 12 times. I would clean off, they’d refill Gaten’s mouth with blood, and then he’d spit in my face again and again,” Johnson said. “I think back to it now, and I was like sick like two days after that, I’m like probably because of all the germs that were being spit in our face."
Playing a bully was also a challenge, but Johnson drew on his own high school experiences and memories of bullies to get into character.
“You just have to think back to your school years,” he said. He acknowledged that many people have had moments of teasing or meanness in their youth.
Besides acting in nine episodes of “Stranger Things,” Johnson’s credits date back to 2018. See our interview with him at the top of this story.