Noah Schnapp Says Winona Ryder Has Always Been a ‘Protective, Motherly Figure’ on Stranger Things Set

• Noah Schnapp and Winona Ryder play mother-son duo Will and Joyce Byers on Netflix’s Stranger Things
• At Epic Cons’ The Upside Down, Schnapp called Ryder “a protective, motherly figure to me”
• Schnapp said he doesn’t want him and his costars to go “our separate ways” once Stranger Things ends after season 5 because “these are really important relationships”

The Byers family has a tight bond both on and off-screen.

At Epic Cons’ The Upside Down in Jackson, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 19, Noah Schnapp spoke highly of his Stranger Things mom, Winona Ryder.

“Winona has always been such a protective, motherly figure to me,” Schnapp, 20, told moderator Cara Buono. “Still now … but to look back now, I mean, she went out of her way to be. She was like, I am going to come to school, go through the lines, work through it. She would invite me to her trailer help sit me down, work though emotional scenes and work with me so much.”

The actor felt like Ryder, 52, “cared so much about making me feel comfortable and safe” on the Stranger Things set, which he found “priceless.”

“I am so lucky,” Schnapp added.

Now, as Schnapp has grown up since Stranger Things first debuted in 2016, he said that the roles have almost swapped between him and Ryder.

“It’s so funny to see how our relationship has grown because now, this season, it’s finally like, okay I am not a little kid anymore. And now, sometimes, I find myself holding her and protecting her, and I am taller than her,” Schnapp said. “And she said to me last night, ‘It’s so funny how these roles are reversed now. You are the one protecting me.’”

Schnapp looked back on auditioning for the Netflix series back at age 9, calling it “a little blurry.”

“They flew us to L.A. for a chemistry read,” Schnapp said. “I remember meeting Caleb [McLaughlin] in the hotel and we both wanted each other to get the role. And little did we know we both ended up being in it.”

Following the audition, Schnapp headed to sleepaway camp where he could only make three phone calls.   

“One of the calls, my parents were like, ‘Hey we have someone who wants to talk to you.’ It was the Duffer Brothers,” Schnapp said of Stranger Things’ co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer. “And they were like, ‘Hey man, we wanted to congratulate you, you got the part in our new Netflix show.’ I was screaming and running. It was the best day of my life.”

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Once filming began, Schnapp said he and costar Millie Bobby Brown bonded quickly.

“I remember meeting Millie at the stages before she cut her hair. We became friends right away,” he recalled. “Then later she came back and we met at a different place. She had her head shaved and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so nice to meet you!’ She was like, ‘Noah, it’s me.’”

Now, “we have so many special memories together,” Schnapp said of Brown, 20. “And she really is like family. So yeah, it’s so nice when I do get to work with her. I love to see her number on the call sheet. I am like, yay, I get to work with her today!”

Schnapp refers to costars Gaten Matarazzo, McLaughlin, 23, and Finn Wolfhard as his “siblings” as well. “It’s funny to think back how we first met,” Schnapp said.

As Stranger Things filmed its fifth and final season, Schnapp reflected on what he learned over the course of the show.

“This season has taught me just how important these relationship are to me and how I have to keep them close to my heart,” he said at Epic Cons’ The Upside Down festival. “Because every other year, I am like, oh whatever, I love them, I will see them next year.”

“But now it’s like, okay if I don’t make the effort, we are going our separate ways,” he added. “So I feel like this year really taught me these are really important relationships. This is family and make sure to make that effort to keep in touch and show these people how much you love them.”

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Stranger Things seasons 1-4 are currently streaming on Netflix.