Stranger Things Star David Harbour Says Child Actors Farted During Takes

Stranger Things star David Harbour recently revealed that the child actors in the Netflix series were so relaxed while filming that they would fart during takes.

On Thursday, May 21, several members of the Stranger Things cast and crew gathered for a panel discussion at an Emmys For Your Consideration event in Los Angeles, California. They included Harbour, creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, executive producer Shawn Levy, and actors Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, and Jamie Campbell Bower.

“These kids were just enjoyable as hell,” Harbour, 51, said at the event. “A lot of kid actors that you work with are very actor-y, and part of the strength of the actors that they formed were that, at their essence, they were just kids.”

He added, “So, even during takes, they would fart and do things that you just couldn’t believe that you had the relaxation to do that in front of a camera. I was like, I would dream of being able to do that and not being self-conscious in that way.”

Flatulence aside, Harbour said of the child stars, “These were real, beautiful human beings, and they were such a joy to work with; I had a blast.”

Of Stranger Things—which ended in December 2025 with Season 5—he continued, “I look back on that first season as being a miraculous time in my life. Hopper was a very depressed individual; it was really tough to go through the acting of that, but the family that we created and the story that we were telling, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that enriched by some work that I was doing.”

Although Harbour didn’t reveal which of the child actors would fart while filming, Stranger Things starred Finn Wolfhard, Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink, and Priah Ferguson. It also starred Winona Ryder, Dyer, Bower, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Matthew Modine, Cara Buono, Joe Chrest, Brett Gelman, Dacre Montgomery, Joseph Quinn, and more.

Stranger Things, streaming on Netflix