Atlantan Priah Ferguson on ‘Stranger Things’ end: ‘It’s a bittersweet moment’
Netflix’s “Stranger Things” may be set in a small town, but its cast has always been well populated.
For its final season with a series finale debuting Wednesday, the story features 19 regular cast members who appear in nearly every episode.
Though the show was largely shot in metro Atlanta the last decade, only one of those 19 was a native full-time Atlanta resident: Priah Ferguson, who plays Lucas’ younger sister, Erica Sinclair.
The show creators, the Duffer Brothers, hadn’t originally planned to give Ferguson more than a few lines. But she brought such flair to her character they decided to widen her role as the show went along, promoting her to the main cast by Season 4.
“She stole every single scene she was in,” said Matt Duffer to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a Zoom call in November before the Season 5 debut. “We increased her role Season 3 significantly. She knocked it out of the park.”
Ferguson, in a recent interview with the AJC at the Four Seasons in Midtown, said “Stranger Things” shaped her childhood. She began the show at age 10 and was 18 when production ended late last year. “I’m more familiar with the show being part of me than without,” she said. Discussing the series ending, she said, “It’s a bittersweet moment.”
Ferguson began Season 2 verbally mocking her brother (Caleb McLaughlin) with comedic sass and bite, calling him a nerd.
When Lucas’ friend Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) tries to reach his friend via walkie-talkie seeking a particular code, Erica hears him and says: “I got a code for you instead. It’s called ‘Code Shut Your Mouth!’”
At that point, Ferguson had a few roles on her resume, including PBS’s “Mercy Street,” Lifetime’s “Daytime Divas” and FX’s “Atlanta.”
“I was just excited to work,” Ferguson said. “On the first day, I did a little improv with the nerd part. They were surprised about it. They wanted to see more.”
During the third season, Erica hangs in the mall with her friends, abusing the free sample policy at Scoops Ahoy, an ice cream shop at the 1985-era Starcourt Mall in Hawkins (shot at Gwinnett Place Mall in 2018). Enticed by free ice cream for life offer from Scoops Ahoy employees Steve and Robin, Erica crawls through air ducts to access an elevator that leads them to a Russian lair beneath the mall.
Her most quoted line from that season still resonates: “You can’t spell America without Erica!”
“She came in strong, full of confidence,” Ferguson said of her character, “always trying to save the day.”
Over time, Erica morphed from pesky annoyance to a crucial part of the team given her genius math and logic skills. By Season 4, she had become an inveterate Dungeons & Dragons fan, joining the Hellfire Club with her character Lady Applejack, “a chaotic good half-elf rogue.” Erica defends her brother and helps the team fend off the bad guy Vecna.
In real life, Ferguson doesn’t play D&D, but she enjoyed doing so on the show. “It’s a game full of imagination,” she said. “I recommend people should play it.”
Erica doesn’t appear in Season 5 until the third episode, when she happily uses a drug-laced pie and syringe to knock out her frenemy Tina and her family to protect Tina’s obnoxious brother Derek from Vecna.
“I liked eating the pie in between takes,” Ferguson said. “That was great. Erica loves food!”
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That drugging scene became one of Matt Duffer’s favorites from Season 5: “It was absolutely epic.”
Ferguson tried homeschooling in fifth grade but hated it. “I’m a social butterfly,” she said.
So she returned to public school the next seven years, graduating from Fayette County High School this past May. She said she was able to live a normal life as a teenager despite her fame because her friends knew her well before she joined “Stranger Things.”
“People saw the grind,” she said. “They didn’t treat me any differently.”
“Stranger Things” only covered four fictional years over an actual span of nearly a decade. This was because of the Duffer Brothers’ creative process and delays caused by the pandemic and the actors and writers strikes.
As a result, Ferguson began the show at age 10 playing a 9-year-old girl but turned 18 last year while playing a 13-year-old for the show’s final season. Fortunately, the hair and makeup team was able to make her look convincingly like a middle schooler.
“They helped me look younger,” she said. “It helps that I’ve always been short.”
Ferguson’s first major post-“Stranger Things” role is in an upcoming biopic about renowned New York City graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Jeffrey Wright. She shot the movie in New Jersey.
“I can’t wait for people to learn more about him,” she said.
She also stars in upcoming scripted podcast series “Hard Drive,” from the creators of “Umbrella Academy,” about a young woman who discovers a hard drive that allows her to experience her grandfather’s memories.
But she has broader plans beyond acting, with a desire to study cosmetic science and fragrance in college. “I want to learn about beauty skin care and what’s in those products,” she said. “I’m excited by that.”
Ferguson is also pondering a move to Los Angeles or New York at some point: “Atlanta is always going to be home to me, but I think I’ve outgrown it. I can always come back.”
If you watch
“Stranger Things,” series finale debuts Wednesday on Netflix
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
