Actor, musician and director Finn Wolfhard, best known for playing Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things, co-wrote, co-directed and co-stars in the new horror comedy Hell of a Summer, which is in theaters from April 4. Wolfhard lent his voice to Guillermo del Toro’s Academy Award winning stop-motion animated musical movie Pinocchio, starred alongside Oscar winner Julianne Moore in the comedy-drama feature When You Finish Saving the World, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, and starred in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, alongside Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon and McKenna Grace. Wolfhard also played Ritchie Tozier in the film adaptation of Stephen Kings It and its sequel, It: Chapter Two. In 2020, Wolfhard made his directorial debut with his first short film Night Shifts. Wolfhard also has a passion for music and formed a garage-rock band called Calpurnia, which released a number of singles, and also the band The Aubreys, which put out the 2021 album Karaoke Alone. He resides in Vancouver, Canada.
Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark tomorrow’s release in theaters of the new horror comedy Hell of a Summer, written, directed by and starring Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, and also starring Abby Quinn, Fred Hechinger and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, the precocious actor, filmmaker and musician Wolfhard shared some of the things he loves most. — N.D.
The Nix
I read this book last year called The Nix, by the author, Nathan Hill, whose work I just love. I read it so fast! I haven’t read a book that fast before, and I was so interested in it. It spans multiple generations and follows the history of a struggling writer and his mother, and the world is just so grand and immersive. I just loved reading that book and his next book, Wellness, has been on my shelf for the last few months. I’ve been trying to read it, but I’m just lazy in that way.
I wasn’t a huge reader growing up, but sometimes I’ll find a book that, for whatever reason, just really speaks to me and I’ll finish it really fast and be super passionate about it and not be able to think about anything else. So when I do read a great book, it’s almost like an obsession for me until I find the next one. I’ve never tried to actively take things from reading and put them into my performances, but I’m sure there’s been inspiration in some way that comes out at least when I’m writing. Because in order to write, you also have to read, so some aspects of the books I love probably subconsciously come out in a lot of different ways.
The Nix is so incredible and I do hope that at some point it will be adapted; for me, it’s hard to not want to adapt the books that I love. I feel that way about a lot of books that I’ve read: Oh, man, this should be this should be a movie, this should be a show. But I will say, there’s something so special about one’s own experience with a book. Some books and graphic novels would be amazing as movies or TV shows, but then there are some books you love where you read it and you have your own very specific idea of what you visualize its world to be. When I read a book, my brain can visualize this huge grand movie, but in real life, I could probably never realize anything like that if I tried to adapt it.
(The Early Seasons of) The Simpsons
I’ve been rewatching the early seasons of The Simpsons, from seasons one to nine or 10, and realizing just how influential that show was, and also how insanely funny it is. Growing up, I watched it a lot, but I saw a lot of the later episodes, so being able to go back and watch episodes from that golden era has been so awesome. It’s a real comfort show for me, as I’m sure it is for so many people. It’s so smart and the characters are so incredibly lived-in and you know them so well – I just love that show so much.
I think the way they developed the characters was so groundbreaking, especially for an animated show at the time. I don’t think anyone had ever done that where it is a sitcom, but these characters grow and change and have these real arcs in the first six or seven seasons. It’s all put together in a way that all the characters evolving and having their little idiosyncrasies that people love and identify with, which the show plays into. It was so interesting to watch, and you can see how quick and funny the writers were, and they had their fingers on the pulse of pop culture at the time, so they knew exactly what people needed and wanted from these characters. The success of the show is a total credit to them; those writers are complete geniuses.
Watching those early seasons of The Simpsons, you can see how shows evolve. It’s been on for so long and the characters have had a few different evolutions, which is just what happens when a show goes on for decades. And I think it’s a necessary thing. Even with Stranger Things, which had five seasons over 10 years, you have different arcs and different evolutions of the characters. At the core, they’re still the same as what they were, but the writers would try to liven things up as the seasons went on.
Travel
I love traveling and being able to see the world. I think it is incredibly important to look outside yourself and your own bubble, and to be able to experience other cultures. Being able to go out and see the world at age 22 is just super exciting and fun, and I wouldn’t say no to visiting any place, because I just think that’s how you make the best connections with people and have meaningful conversations, build meaningful relationships. I’m so lucky that I’m able to travel as much as I do, for both work and pleasure. It’s something that I’ve definitely found comfort in.
When I’m in a new place, I’ll go to a local bar or to a record store, just to see what the scene is and what music most people buy there. I go to a lot of big cities, but if there’s some nature nearby, I’ll try to get outside and walk around. When I was 16, I was lucky enough to go to Barcelona, and I was so tired from jet lag that I knew that if I fell asleep, that would have been the end for me for the next few days. So instead, I got up like a zombie, and just walking cured my jetlag. I slowly but surely woke up and saw the sights and was so excited by the energy of the city.
Japan is such a beautiful country, and I just love being able to walk around and go to any izakaya to eat and drink for a little bit. Japan is one of those places that can be incredibly peaceful. If you want crazy chaos, you can get it there pretty easily, but if you want to turn it off pretty fast, you can do that, too. Tokyo’s amazing, because one minute you can be in a super high-traffic civilian area, and then the next minute you can find your way down a quiet side street where there’s absolutely no one except five old men playing cards. There’s something comforting to me about that, because it shows it’s a place with something for everyone.
I also welcome any chance to go to Europe. I really liked going to this record store in Copenhagen called Sound Station, where they had basically every record ever made. Or at least every record I’d been trying to find over the past few years. The owner works the till and is incredibly nice and has all these amazing stories about musicians coming in and has listened to every record in that place. He’s just a big audiophile.
I’d love to keep traveling, and Southeast Asia is on the list, too. I also have family in Pakistan and would love to go there also.
