David Harbour is back in theaters this month opposite Orlando Bloom in Sony’s “Gran Turismo,” but he’s well aware the public will continue to recognize him for his role as Hopper on Netflix’s blockbuster series “Stranger Things.” With the fifth and final season of the show still left to film once the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved, Harbour told Insider pre-strikes that he’s fully planning on acting in films exclusively once “Stranger Things” wrapped.
Harbour had a strong run as a character actor in films such as “Brokeback Mountain” and “Revolutionary Road” before his star profile exploded with the success of “Stranger Things.” His first attempt to parlay the success of “Stranger Things” into a movie career failed thanks to the box office bomb that was “Hellboy,” but he got things back on track with Marvel’s “Black Widow” and Universal’s “Violent Night,” a modestly-budgeted original action comedy that turned a profit.
“I’ve been on Netflix, but this was a small original movie that’s going to a cinema,” Harbour said about “Violent Night” succeeding. “A whole new world opened up for me with that. I like this playing field. I want to make original movies that go to the movie theaters.”
Movies will be Harbour’s primary focus after “Stranger Things” wraps as he works to shed his “Stranger Things” image from the public eye.
“I think about that a lot,” Harbour said of “one day being associated with more than just the character that made him a star,” Insider reports.
“It’s a funny position I’m in, which I never thought I would be in,” Harbour said. “The first year of ‘Stranger Things,’ I remember having a discussion with a publicist and her saying, ‘Maybe you don’t want to be associated with the show so much,’ and I was like, ‘Why? I love this show. I love the character.’ And I do love the show. And I do love the character. But I don’t want to be just that character. I don’t want to be just that guy.”
“I think about George Clooney leaving ‘ER.’ Now we just see him as George Clooney,” Harbour continued. “But there was a time when it was, ‘The guy from ‘ER’ is doing a movie with Nicole Kidman.'”
“I’m trying to navigate some of that, and it’s tricky because you don’t want to shit on the people that love you for this thing that you did that you also love,” he concluded. “But at the same time, you kind of want to leave the nest. I got more in me. I got different stuff in me, and I want you guys to see that. I don’t want people yelling ‘Hopper’ on the street every five minutes the rest of my life.”
“Gran Turismo” opens in theaters August 25 from Sony.
