Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton: I won the Netflix role in a burger bar

Stranger Things actor Charlie Heaton has revealed his path to stardom had a strange beginning — a Skype interview in the Hammersmith branch of Byron Burger.

The British newcomer, from Bridlington in Yorkshire, was part of the young cast who shot to fame in the Netflix show, which was one of last year’s most talked-about programmes.

Heaton, 23, had only a handful of minor television credits to his name before he was cast by Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer to play introverted teenager Jonathan Byers.

The first series of the sci-fi thriller, set in a fictional Indiana town in the Eighties, centred around the disappearance of Jonathan’s brother, Will. The boys’ mother is played by Winona Ryder, who is returning with Heaton and the rest of the cast for the second series, out this month.

Heaton said: “I sent in an audition tape and then found out they wanted to know more about me and where I had come from. They ended up Skyping me from a Byron Burger in Hammersmith — it was the weirdest thing.

“They said they were looking for people who weren’t necessarily known actors, and I told them how much I related to this character as I was from a working class background and really into music. I was flown over to the US for a screen test and got the role very quickly. Then it came out and almost overnight it became a phenomenon.”

Heaton went on to win a role in Marvel’s next X-Men movie, New Mutants, which he has just finished filming.

He has had no formal acting training and fell into the profession after moving to London at 16 to become a musician. He toured with several bands but, short of money, ended up auditioning for a part in an advert with his sister.

Since then he has been learning on the job. He said: “It’s the best way! You can go to school and learn and that works for some people. But I think the best kind of learning is practical and learning on the job.”

He added: “When I see my old mates they will say, ‘You’re doing well, good on you!’ It kind of blows their minds — it blows my mind too! I sometimes think, ‘What am I doing standing on this red carpet?’ It’s hard to believe. You just tell yourself, ‘Just play along and hopefully no one will notice!’”