{"id":279610,"date":"2026-02-12T01:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279610\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T01:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:03:08","slug":"goat-star-caleb-mclaughlin-talks-stranger-things-conformity-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279610\/","title":{"rendered":"GOAT Star Caleb McLaughlin Talks Stranger Things\u2019 Conformity Gate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJust six weeks after closing the basement door on Stranger Things<\/a>, Caleb McLaughlin<\/a> is back with GOAT<\/a>, his biggest movie to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 24-year-old voices the title character in Sony Pictures Animation\u2019s latest film, furthering the highly impressive streak they\u2019ve been on with the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse trilogy and the Oscar-nominated KPop Demon Hunters. The literal goat in question is Will Harris, whose dreams of playing professional roarball are dampened by his undersized frame. The game is a version of basketball in which robust animals play hoops within their unique biomes. One day, Will goes viral after embarrassing ROAR league MVP, Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre), during a streetball challenge, prompting his favorite team, the Vineland Thorns, to sign him to a season-ending contract in a desperate attempt to juice ticket sales.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcLaughlin is no stranger to underdog stories that are produced by NBA greats. He previously played LeBron James<\/a>\u2019 best friend and former teammate, Dru Joyce III, in the James-produced Shooting Stars (2023), which chronicled the NBA superstar\u2019s decorated high school basketball team in Akron, Ohio. The Tyree Dillihay-directed GOAT also counts James\u2019 fellow NBA icon and Olympic teammate, Stephen Curry<\/a>, as a producer and voice actor.<\/p>\n

\n\tThese fictional underdog stories remind McLaughlin of one of his own formative experiences where he and another child actor were accidentally double-booked to play the same role in a movie. McLaughlin was subsequently asked to serve as a dancer instead of an actor, and while he held his head up high in the moment, the emotion and humiliation he felt that day only fueled him going forward.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI remember going to the bathroom and crying. I said to myself, \u2018I don\u2019t want to ever feel like this again. I\u2019m not going to let it happen,\u2019\u201d McLaughlin tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of GOAT\u2018s Feb. 13 theatrical release. \u201cThere was growth in that moment. I got stronger and I got better because of that underdog situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, the tears he shed that day would soon be replaced by the elation of landing an integral role on what would become the most popular streaming series of all time in Stranger Things. McLaughlin recently joined co-stars Finn Wolfhard<\/a> and Gaten Matarazzo<\/a> on SNL<\/a> to poke fun at a viral fan theory that emerged following the Dec. 31 series finale. Dubbed \u201cConformity Gate,\u201d fans speculated that the final episode\u2019s 35-minute epilogue was really just an illusion created by the mind-controlling big bad, Vecna, paving the way for the real finale the following week. However, it was all a grand case of apophenia, as humans have a tendency to create patterns out of disparate points.<\/p>\n

\n\tInitially, McLaughlin thought the theory was short-sighted. But he\u2019s since come to the conclusion that Stranger Things fans were coping with the loss of the beloved show in the same way that the characters were coping with the loss of their dear friend, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), by adopting the far-fetched belief that there\u2019s more to the story. In reality, McLaughlin \u2014\u00a0like his frequent scene partner, Sadie Sink \u2014 is convinced that \u201cEl\u201d is dead and gone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt first, I thought the \u2018Conformity Gate\u2019 theory was dumb. I get that people want to live in this optimistic place of, \u2018Oh, we want more Stranger Things,\u2019 but I was like, \u2018Guys, it\u2019s over. It\u2019s been ten years,\u2019\u201d McLaughlin says. \u201cI think people missed the concept of what the show is when they were like, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s going to be more.\u2019 No, that\u2019s just Mike\u2019s imagination. That\u2019s who he\u2019s always been, even in season one. It\u2019s all just storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a recent conversation with THR, McLaughlin also discusses how he shot Stranger Things 5<\/a> without knowing that his co-star David Harbour was also a part of GOAT\u2019s decorated voice cast.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tGOAT is your first project in a post-Stranger Things world. How are you feeling as you head into this new era?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m loving it. I appreciate my past, and it\u2019s projected me to where I am today. So I\u2019m really happy that I\u2019m starting off the new year, and life after Stranger Things, with GOAT.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWill (Caleb McLaughlin) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Picture Animation\u2019s Goat.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSony Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you record your goat character named Will during your downtime on Stranger Things 5?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I filmed Stranger Things and recorded GOAT at the same time. I would go in to record whenever I had days off; I also went in during some weekends as well. The cool thing about doing animation and voiceovers is that it\u2019s very flexible. Regardless of where you are in the world, you can get it done. [Vocal] booths pretty much anywhere. My last recording session was actually in London during the Stranger Things 5 press tour, so it took about two years to finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYour Stranger Things castmate David Harbour also has a role in GOAT. Did you ever bump into each other at an Atlanta-area recording studio and realize you were castmates on two projects at the same time?<\/p>\n

\n\tI actually didn\u2019t even know he was cast as [Will\u2019s rhinoceros teammate] Archie till the [middle] of 2025. We worked with each other on all of Stranger Things 5 without knowing we were both on another project at the same time. No one told me because of behind-the-scenes things and contracts and just wanting to keep the project under wraps. So he couldn\u2019t really say anything while we were working together throughout 2024, and I also couldn\u2019t tell anyone that I was doing GOAT.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWill (Caleb McLaughlin) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Picture Animation\u2019s GOAT.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSony Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you perform your voiceover lines differently than you would in live-action? Are you supposed to add more inflection and whatnot?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMost definitely. I\u2019m used to expressing my character through my physicality and my facial expressions, but with this character, I had to hone in on his personality through his voice and his tone. So I had to compensate for what I usually do with my voice, and I knew that the animation was going to be able to deliver who the character is through the mannerisms they wanted for Will. But, as the actor, I had to make sure that every question and every statement is heard in a more exaggerated way than I\u2019ve ever had to do on Stranger Things or anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBasketball has been a through-line in your career thus far. You played a basketball player in High Flying Bird, Shooting Stars, Stranger Things and now GOAT. You gravitated toward the arts when you were rather young, but did you ever have a chance to play organized ball?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI played organized ball in my hometown before I started my acting career. But once it started, I was only able to partake in games with friends or even just by myself. Most of the time, I\u2019d play by myself, but I still try to play when I can.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWill (Caleb McLaughlin) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation\u2019s GOAT.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSony Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be accurate, GOAT revolves around a variation of basketball called roarball. It\u2019s played by animals within their specific ecosystems. Will has had a lifelong dream of playing professional roarball, and it\u2019s scoffed at because he\u2019s undersized, much like your character of Dru Joyce III in Shooting Stars. When was the last time you lived your own underdog story \u00e0 la Will and Dru?<\/p>\n

\n\tI have moments like that, and they always motivate me to get better at what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m always trying to prove to myself that I can be better than I was before. But an underdog moment that sticks out to me is when I auditioned for this movie as a kid. It ultimately came out, but they ended up taking out the scene I auditioned for at the time. I went out for this kid who was getting a pretzel at this pretzel stand or whatever, and I ended up getting the role. The audition process involved the lines and dancing; you had to know how to dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI then got the call that I landed the role. Let\u2019s say the kid\u2019s name was Gerald. I was eventually sitting in my dressing room, and then another kid walked into the same dressing room. It was a big dressing room. And I was like, \u201cOh, what are you doing here?\u201d And he was like, \u201cI got Gerald.\u201d And I was like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m Gerald.\u201d The PA then came in and said, \u201cGerald?\u201d And we both raised our hands. Then the PA was like, \u201cBoth of you guys can\u2019t be Gerald.\u201d So he looked at the call sheet and then he said to me, \u201cOh, he\u2019s Gerald, and you\u2019re \u2026 One second, I have to figure out what your role is. \u201d And I was like, \u201cWhat the heck!?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI then sat there for hours while the other kid was filming, and then they finally called me in. The director was like, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry I had you sitting there. We\u2019re going to figure out how to put you in.\u201d And then he was like, \u201cActually, I know what we need to do. Do the thing. Dance.\u201d And I was like, \u201cWhoa!\u201d So I ended up dancing and pop-locking, but that was all I was called in to do.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfterwards, I remember going to the bathroom and crying and being like, \u201cNo, I came here for acting. I didn\u2019t want to just dance.\u201d Dancing is a part of my upbringing and my art. But I wanted to be an actor, and I felt like my acting was being put on the back burner. So I did feel like an underdog at that moment, and I said to myself, \u201cI don\u2019t want to ever feel like this again. I\u2019m not going to let it happen.\u201d There was growth in that moment. I got stronger and I got better because of that underdog situation.<\/p>\n

\n\tI honestly didn\u2019t know until recently that you\u2019re quite the dancer and acrobat. You actually remind me of Tom Holland in that you both can do these crazy spins<\/a> and flips on flat ground. (They both performed on Lip Sync Battle as well.) Were you ever able to incorporate that skill during stunts on the show?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNot at all, actually. I wouldn\u2019t say I did anything on the show where I was really utilizing that [acrobatic] skillI. I did some stunts in season one. I did the stunt where Eleven throws Lucas back with her powers. We also rode bikes, and I did a fighting scene in season four. Then there\u2019s the scene where I\u2019m running through the hospital with Sadie [Sink]. There was so much development in Lucas from previous seasons, and the challenge of the final season was to bring all of those past experiences into his current mindset.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeBron James produced Shooting Stars since it was based on his high school basketball team. Stephen Curry is a producer and voice actor on GOAT. Are you going to plead the Fifth if I ask you who the GOAT is between the two of them?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) I love both of them. LeBron is the greatest of all time, and the stats show it, right? Stephen Curry is a different player. He is actually in a lane unto himself. LeBron, you compare him to Jordan and Kobe. You can compare Steph to all the greatest point guards of all time, but Steph is in a lane of his own. He changed the game. He\u2019s brought a new perspective to the game that no one has ever seen. He\u2019s created his own timeline in his own multiverse. He broke the timeline of what it means to be a basketball player.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI personally enjoy watching both of them, but Stephen Curry was someone I leaned toward growing up. I love his playing style because I\u2019m not the tallest guy on the court. I\u2019m average height. But LeBron can play all five positions, and no one else can do that. Steph can\u2019t do that, but Steph is whom I relate to the most. [Writer\u2019s Note: McLaughlin\u2019s character was partially inspired by Kobe Bryant during his high school days.]<\/p>\n

\n\tWho\u2019s your GOAT in the entertainment industry?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt changes because depending on where I\u2019m at in my life, but Donald Glover is probably my GOAT right now. He can do everything: acting, music, writing, directing. He can do it all, and no one else has been able to do it at his level. So it\u2019s very admirable and inspiring.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou got to work on SNL recently. What caught your attention about their process behind the scenes?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat surprised me the most is how it feels like Broadway. It\u2019s live and ongoing. There\u2019s no stopping. If you mess up, you keep going. People don\u2019t realize how smart you have to be to be funny in sketch comedy. The ideas are always changing, and these people work hard all week until the last second. They\u2019ll even come up with concepts on the day, and it just reminded me of when I was performing on Broadway.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou, Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo had some fun<\/a> with the \u201cConformity Gate\u201d fan theory in front of the waterfalls. Was that a last-minute addition once that theory went viral?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be honest with you, I have no idea. Finn reached out and said, \u201cCan you come in the day before the show?\u201d And I was like, \u201cSure.\u201d I was going to fly out to see his SNL episode regardless because he asked all of us to come and support him, but they asked me to fly out earlier so that I could be a part of the segment. So I was like, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m down. Just let me know what I need to do. \u201d But I couldn\u2019t even tell you what the timing of it was because I was told all of these things at the last minute.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was your first reaction to that theory taking off?<\/p>\n

\n\tAt first, I thought the \u201cConformity Gate\u201d theory was dumb. I get that people want to live in this optimistic place of, \u201cOh, we want more Stranger Things,\u201d but the show is done, guys. I was like, \u201cGuys, it\u2019s over. It\u2019s been ten years. We were full-on kids and now we\u2019re full-on adults, and we don\u2019t need any more of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Duffers, our wonderful, amazing creators, wanted to leave everybody with this level of optimism that the show has always given everyone. So if they left the show without that, we would have left Stranger Things without the true essence of what we\u2019ve been representing forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe started off season one playing Dungeons & Dragons, and we ended just like that. And Mike\u2019s storytelling and writing ability [that\u2019s rooted in D&D] is how the show should have ended. I think people missed the concept of what the show is when they were like \u201cOh, there\u2019s going to be more.\u201d No, that\u2019s just Mike\u2019s imagination. That\u2019s who he\u2019s always been, even in season one. It\u2019s all just storytelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSadie Sink believes that Eleven is dead and that Mike just created a story as a coping mechanism. It sounds like you\u2019re of the same mind as her and that you don\u2019t think El is living in some Icelandic cave.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, she\u2019s gone. I\u2019m so sorry. I think she evaporated.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSadie Sink\u2019s Max and Caleb McLaughlin\u2019s Lucas in Stranger Things 5.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tYou played a teenager for a decade, but you were still growing up in between seasons. Are you glad that you can now be a 24-year-old and not have to worry about whether you look 17 anymore?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI mean, I will continue to play younger roles for as long as I look young. Right now, I do look pretty mature and older because of my hair style and how I\u2019m presenting myself. But I\u2019ve never had a problem with playing younger. I also had the freedom to be myself when I wasn\u2019t filming. So it\u2019s not something where I was like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m so happy this is all over.\u201d It was my childhood. It was like my high school and college experience. But all good things must come to an end, and it\u2019s amazing the journey that I went through with these guys. I\u2019ll never regret it. I\u2019d do it all over again if I could.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think some of the fans would\u2019ve cryogenically frozen you and your castmates between seasons if they could have.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI know! (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tI just always found the aging critique to be odd since it\u2019s a show that asks you to believe in demogorgons and a mind flayer. Suspending disbelief about adolescent aging should be easy compared to that.<\/p>\n

\n\tThank you for saying that. It\u2019s so interesting because Joe Keery was older in season one than we were in season five. We weren\u2019t even his age by the time we finished the show. He\u2019s 33 now, and he played a teenager for how long? There\u2019s a lot of people that are 30 and still play 17. So people just got so caught up in how young we looked in season one and didn\u2019t realize that people age [off-camera].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Finn Wolfhard in Stranger Things season one.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tYour Stranger Things director-producer Shawn Levy now has the keys to the MCU and Star Wars. How much campaigning did you guys do around him?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadpool & Wolverine was done by the time he came on set [in 2024], so we all saw the finishing touches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut you knew he was doing Star Wars?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, but I\u2019m not that person. Unless he brings it up, I\u2019m not going to talk about it. I might say, \u201cHey, how\u2019s it going filming Star Wars?\u201d But I\u2019m not a person that really asks many questions depending on the scenario. I\u2019m sorry, but I also haven\u2019t watched Star Wars, so I didn\u2019t really have much to ask.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you mean you haven\u2019t watched Star Wars?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) I know. I\u2019ve only watched the one with John Boyega.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe made three of them, so The Force Awakens?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I only saw the first one. I haven\u2019t seen all of them. So I didn\u2019t even know what to ask Shawn, but I did ask a lot about Deadpool because I love Marvel.<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you not into space fantasy?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I just haven\u2019t gotten around to a lot of classic movies yet. My very first time watching The Lord of the Rings was last year, and I\u2019m not proud of this. This is not a flex. I also dislike it when people are like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve never seen that,\u201d so I\u2019m not trying to be that person. But I really just haven\u2019t got around to Star Wars, and I\u2019m getting around to it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere movies not a big part of your household?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI have a big family that loves movies, but we\u2019re not movie buffs. We still love watching movies and going to see a movie together as a family. The classics just weren\u2019t forced upon us. They were never like, \u201cYou have to see this. \u201d My parents introduced me to Roots, Crooklyn and The Matrix. My dad introduced me to a lot of action films; he loves Ip Man. So we just had our own vibe.<\/p>\n

\n\tYour future is wide open now. If you could green light something for yourself, what would you choose?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI would just love to be in Marvel. I need to call Shawn up and say, \u201cHey, man, please put a good word in for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

***
GOAT opens Feb. 13 in movie theaters.<\/p>\n