Maya Hawke Recalls the 'Thrilling' Feeling She Had Getting to Join the Cast of 'Stranger Things'

Netflix's hit sci-fi drama Stranger Things returned for a third season last year and fans got to meet some great new characters. Set during the summer of 1985, viewers had the pleasure of watching a bond grow between everyone's favorite babysitter, Steve Harrington, and his new Scoops Ahoy coworker, Robin, played by actress Maya Hawke.

Robin quickly became a fan-favorite, and the friendship between the two characters was no doubt a highlight of Season 3. As reported by Variety, Hawke recently joined casting director Carmen Cuba on Netflix’s FYSEE TV series Scene Stealers to talk about her experience being cast on the show and her time on set. "For an actor, you’re a fan of the show not just as an entity…You’re a fan of the people who make it, the action that goes on in it, the dialogue, the environment [and] the fun it looks like people are having," she explained of joining a show she was already into. "I didn’t have, like, a fandom reaction. I had a thrilling reaction to the idea I could get to say that dialogue that the Duffer Brothers write so intelligently and so specifically."

“I felt so fortunate,” Hawke continued. “Joe [Keery] was an incredible leader. He sees humor in everything and he sees depth where depth lies. And Gaten [Matarazzo] and Priah [Ferguson] are so unbelievably talented. Priah definitely gets ‘most likely to succeed,’ ‘most prepared,’ ‘most intelligent’ [and] ‘most hardworking.’ And Gaten and Joe’s love of the show, their comfort, their chemistry together — the whole thing. I felt we came together really well and it was an honor to be a part of that.”

Fans will recall that Robin, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas' younger sister Erica spent a large part of Season 3 infiltrating a secret Russian base under the Starcourt Mall.

Hawke continued to elaborate on how much she appreciates Steve and Robin's friendship. “Men and women aren’t really allowed to be friends onscreen,” Hawke added. “There’s always this undercurrent of one-sided love or two. It’s very refreshing to see a bond between a man and a woman that isn’t transactional, that isn’t romantic. It’s their togetherness that comes as a true friendship in understanding through opposition. Seeing that is almost revolutionary.”

The actress had only good things to say about her character, though she admitted joining a core cast of characters has been challenging. “I love playing this character. She really allows me to embrace parts of myself that I’ve often tried to hide,” Hawke said. “She has this darkness to her, this kind of physical awkwardness, a little bit of a social outcast feeling to her and an intense intelligence. Those are all pieces of my personality, but they’re not necessarily the ones that I try to put first.” Although production for Season 4 of Stranger Things is currently on hold, hopefully Robin and the rest of the gang will be back on our screens in no time.