{"id":106709,"date":"2026-01-05T20:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/106709\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:47:18","slug":"orlando-actor-in-stranger-things-shares-candid-stories-from-time-filming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/106709\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando actor in \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 shares candid stories from time filming"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 \u201cStranger Things<\/a>\u201d wrapped up its fifth and final season, and one of the show\u2019s actors has a special connection to Central Florida. <\/p>\n

Clayton Royal Johnson, who plays Andy, is originally from Orlando and recently shared his experience<\/a> on the hit Netflix series.<\/p>\n

Johnson landed his role on \u201cStranger Things\u201d after working on a smaller Nickelodeon show called \u201cI Am Frankie.\u201d At the time, he was working at Texas Roadhouse and sent in a simple audition tape. <\/p>\n

\u201cA week later, I was at Disney. I got pinned,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a week after that, my agent called me. He was like, \u2018Hey, can you play basketball?\u2019 <\/p>\n

Those basketball scenes in \u201cStranger Things\u201d were physically demanding. Johnson trained for about two months with professional coaches and even a Harlem Globetrotter, despite having no prior experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe drills were tough. I can barely dribble a ball,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

Clayton Royal Johnson plays Andy in Seasons 4 and 5 of Stranger Things. (Netflix)<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

One memorable scene involved his character pushing Dustin against a locker, and another where he was thrown against a wall. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A particularly challenging moment came during a scene where Johnson\u2019s character gets spat in the face with fake blood. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to do that scene like 10, 12 times. I would clean off, they\u2019d refill Gaten\u2019s mouth with blood, and then he\u2019d spit in my face again and again,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI think back to it now, and I was like sick like two days after that, I\u2019m like probably because of all the germs that were being spit in our face.” <\/p>\n

Playing a bully was also a challenge, but Johnson drew on his own high school experiences and memories of bullies to get into character. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to think back to your school years,\u201d he said. He acknowledged that many people have had moments of teasing or meanness in their youth.<\/p>\n

Besides acting in nine episodes of \u201cStranger Things,\u201d Johnson\u2019s credits date back to 2018<\/a>. See our interview with him at the top of this story.<\/p>\n

Setting the Stage<\/p>\n

Get info sent right to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 \u201cStranger Things\u201d wrapped up its fifth and final season, and one of the show\u2019s actors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[104,1335,139,141,140,3205,11362],"class_list":["post-106709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-entertainment","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-setting-the-stage","tag-stranger-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}