David Harbour Was Cautioned About Being Typecast as His ‘Stranger Things’ Character for Future Roles

David Harbour doesn’t want his career to just be another stranger thing. The “Stranger Things” star recently told Insider that he was cautioned about being typecast as police chief character Jim Hopper due to the unprecedented success of the Netflix series.

“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,'” Harbour said. “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.”

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He continued, “I think about George Clooney leaving ‘ER.’ Now we just see him as George Clooney. But there was a time when it was, ‘The guy from “ER” is doing a movie with Nicole Kidman.’ … I think about that a lot. It’s a funny position I’m in, which I never thought I would be in.”

Harbour added, “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. 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.”

Even so, the actor has starred in plenty of titles throughout his “Stranger Things” run that are decidedly not Jim Hopper. Most recently, Harbour starred in the dark comedy “Violent Night” as a butt-kicking Santa Claus and appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s stacked thriller “No Sudden Move.” Harbour also entered the MCU, as is so often the case with our big stars, with “Black Widow,” and will lead Phase 5 installment “Thunderbolts.”

And while the “Stranger Things” universe will continue, the hit series is set to conclude after the upcoming Season 5.

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