From Johnny Lawrence, Biff Tannen and Chet Donnelly, to Heather Duke, John Bender and the entire jock frat brotherhood of Alpha Beta, the 1980s were an obvious pinnacle of the school bully as chief on-screen antagonist.
If you were a movie character coming of age in the Reagan era, chances were you’d fight through, at the very least, a hailstorm of noogies, wedgies and spit-balls to survive.
Tapping into all things early ’80s for Stranger Things, creators the Duffer brothers naturally crafted a memorable bully to cross paths (and knuckles) with the show’s young protagonists.
Louisiana native Peyton Wich, then 12, plays that bully: the often-sneering Troy whose antics grow increasingly violent as season one develops.
Before earning the role, the New Orleans native traveled regularly to Baton Rouge to take classes at Debby Gaudet’s Young Screen Actors studio. In an interview with 225 last year, Wich said, “Acting-wise, I feel like [Gaudet] really helped me in terms of improving and then being able to land the role of Troy.”
Wich ended up appearing in the debut of Stranger Things, then in five subsequent episodes—even bearing the brunt of Eleven’s paranormal powers in a classic case of creeper comeuppance.
Wich attended Brother Martin High School last year but is home schooling this year so he can travel more easily for film and TV projects. In the weeks before our 225 cover shoot, he had been traveling between Louisiana and Atlanta for auditions and bookings for other roles.
225 spoke to the talented young actor, now 14, about Stranger Things.
You just got back from a fan convention. It’s amazing how Stranger Things has taken off. It is. It’s always fun meeting fans and getting to talk about the show. And going to these big conventions, I get to meet a lot of other actors I recognize.
Does playing a bully affect how fans of the show approach you? Not too much. Most fans can distinguish between the actor and the character. But every now and then, there will be someone who I can tell recognizes me and doesn’t really want to come up, and I have to sort of convince them I’m not actually mean and that I want to meet them.
What was your direction from the Duffer brothers for playing Troy? They just talked a lot about him being this classic 1980s bully that everyone hates. A complete jerk. Especially in those scenes at school, I’m really just there to be mean and give people a hard time.
If you appear in future episodes, do you think there’s a chance Troy could turn around? I hope so. I thinkthat would be really, really interesting. To give Troy more of a character arc would be cool and a good challenge.
What was your most fun day during the production? Definitely the episode we shot in the woods when I have the knife to Gaten [Matarazzo, who plays Dustin]. Just hanging out that day was so much fun. It was Millie [Bobby Brown]’s little sister’s birthday, so we all had lots of cake and snacks back at base camp, and we had a drone out there and were flying it through the woods.
What was the audition process like for you? Originally the series was known as Montauk, and auditions for that began in August or so in 2015 in Atlanta. I went out there for a screen test and to read, and originally I got the role of Mike Wheeler. Then that changed, and the Duffers had me read for another bully, and they finally settled on me playing Troy as the main bully. It was great, but it took about three months. I shot starting in October and went back and forth between Atlanta and Louisiana until April the next year. The Duffers and everyone else were great to work with.
It had to be fun being a part of a large cast of young people. It was! The best moments were just the downtime out there hanging out with everyone. Millie, Gaten, Caleb and Finn—we’re all really good friends.
What’s next for you? I’m shooting a series now called Mr. Mercedes. It’s a crime thriller, and the director is Jack Bender, who did Lost. It’s based on a Stephen King book.
That’s interesting, because Stephen King’s work is often cited as a major influence on the tone of Stranger Things. For sure, and I think this is going to be a great show.
Anything else about Stranger Things you’d like to add? Watch season two! The trailer is up on YouTube.
This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.
