Atlanta actor Myles Truitt is excited for his upcoming role on season four of “Stranger Things” as Patrick, a high school basketball player who gets caught up in the upside down world of the main characters on the scary drama.
In advance of the release of the first part of season 4 this Friday, Truitt in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution could only offer a limited amount of info about Patrick.
“Patrick befriends Lucas,” a main character played by Caleb McLaughlin who has been around since season one, he said. “The main characters are freshmen in high school. Everyone has to find their clique. Lucas’ clique is the basketball team. Patrick has a whole back story in himself. He has a darker future ahead of him.”
Credit: STARZ
Credit: STARZ
He doesn’t say so specifically, but it’s very likely that the evil forces that keep hitting Hawkins, Indiana, will find a way into Patrick’s life.
Still, Truitt said, “it was fun filming,” he said. “Full circle moment. I knew about the show before it even came out.”
That’s because he and McLaughlin played younger versions of two New Edition singers in BET’s 2017 miniseries “The New Edition Story.” While there, he heard McLaughlin talk about booking the “Stranger Things” role.
Since then, Truitt has been trying to angle his way onto the show, one of the priciest and most popular series Netflix has ever released. He understands the show’s appeal from a kid’s perspective.
“It’s different and relatable to middle schoolers,” Truitt said. “We were also able to go back to the 1980s. We had never lived that time. It was interesting for them to get a better understanding of what it’s like then.”
The Duffer brothers, the creators, were hands on in a good way. “I felt like they were very genuine and those little whispers in the ear of direction and criticism to illustrate something is real, I loved it,” he said.
Truitt, now 20, has built up some impressive bonafides already. He starred in the Michael B. Jordan action thriller “Kin” in 2018 with Zoë Kravitz, Dennis Quaid and James Franco. He is now a regular in the Starz semi-autobiographical drama “BMF,” which shoots in Atlanta and is also set in the past. “BMF” is about two brothers who rose from southwest Detroit in the late 1980s and gave birth to one of the most influential drug-running crime families in the country.
Truitt plays B-Mickie, the right-hand man to leader Demetrius Flenory, who is played by his actual son, and a childhood friend. “B-Mickie is still trying to prove that he is deserving of a certain status in the group,” he said. “I appreciate how human [executive producer] Randy [Huggins] makes the character even with all the killing and crack making going on.” (The “BMF” crew in part ended up in Atlanta in the 1990s into the early 2000s.)
He was floored when he had heard Atlanta rap stars Young Thug and Gunna were sent to jail for allegedly running street gang operations as well. Truitt said he met Young Thug at the season one “BMF” premiere party.
“It’s like when you’re in it, you’re in it,” he said. “When do you evolve and how do you shed that skin?”
Truitt hopes to keep booking bigger roles and is already getting into executive producing stories that have yet to be told or he thinks have been “masked by the man.”
“I’ve been indulged in this industry for almost half my life and I want to get a different perspective on the game,” he said. “It’s not just the producers or directors. I talk to the PAs, the grips, the camera operators.”
He clearly loves the 1980s and 1990s, eras he has gotten to play multiple times including ‘Stranger Things.”
“I love the style of clothing Patrick wears,” he said. “I love the music from that time. I’m used to going back in time and living in it. And I love basketball, playing in those short shorts on the hardwood floor and shooting in the style of players back then. It felt comfortable.”
IF YOU WATCH
“Stranger Things,” season 4, part 1 will come out Friday, May 27 for Netflix subscribers
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