Stranger Things 4 Star Robert Englund Actually Auditioned For Season 3 And Didn't Get The Part

gamespot.com:

When it was announced that Robert Englund, best known for his role as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, would be appearing in Season 4 of Stranger Things, it seemed like a match made in heaven. After all, Englund is synonymous with the '80s pop culture that Stranger Things embraves. Now, as Victor Creel, he's part of a show that goes a long way to pay tribute to that decade--and even his Elm Street movies.

However, getting him a role on the show wasn't as simple a task as you may think. In fact, Englund even admits that he auditioned for a role in a previous season, though he failed to land the part.

«I auditioned for Season 3, and I may have been too old for the role or it may have been a bad audition,» Englund told GameSpot. «I was disappointed and out of nowhere came this audition request from the Duffer brothers for Season 4. And I did a home audition, I remember that--without the makeup, but a sense of the rhythm of the lines and my voice and how it would sound. I may have been a little too Hannibal Lecter--kind of a neurotic Hannibal Lecter.»

Whatever the case, it worked, and he was cast in the role of Victor Creel, the man believed to have murdered his family, leading to him being committed to a psychiatric hospital. Of course, those who watched Episode 7 of Stranger Things 4 know that his son, Henry, was actually the murderer--and is now Vecna in the Upside Down.

But that «neurotic Hannibal Lecter,» as he puts it, performance struck a chord with Natalie Dyner and Maya Hawke, who share a scene with him in the hospital. «He was so kind and gentle and easy to talk to, and then he just really brought it,» Dyer said of Englund. «He was so fascinating, but also quite instructive to watch him