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Nell Fisher made her debut in Stranger Things’ final season playing a character that was depicted by someone else before her.
The role of Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer)’s little sister was previously played by twins Tinsley and Annie Price, 13, in the Netflix hit. During an interview at the season 5 world premiere earlier this month in Los Angeles, Fisher tells PEOPLE how she prepared to play the character — and revealed if she ever met her predecessors.
“Holly definitely does have a lot of development this season and she’s definitely got a bigger part,” Fisher, 14, explains. “I actually met with the Price twins, who played Holly in the previous seasons, which was really nice. We talked about her and her character.”
“We spent two hours at a trampoline park,” she continues, adding that “they’re really lovely girls.”
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When it came time to film with the rest of the cast, several of whom have been on the beloved show since its debut 10 years ago, Fisher says she felt like she was joining a big family. Wolfhard, who was 12 when he started playing Holly’s brother Mike, was someone the Evil Dead Rise alum particularly bonded with.
“We were really good friends,” she shares. “I mean, he’s such an amazing guy. He’s definitely been really helpful talking about what is to come, because he did this when he was younger. He was around the same age, and he’s given a whole lot of helpful advice.”
One of the most valuable pieces of advice she learned from him: “It’s really about being able to say no and being able to say it nicely. Because I think especially as a child, you’ve got a lot of time where you want to be on personal time.”
Courtesy of Netflix
“Actually, we were out for dinner, my mom and I, with Sadie [Sink] and Finn and Gaten [Matarazzo],” Fisher continues. “And just as [Wolfhard] is talking about being able to say no, this woman comes up to him and she goes, ‘Oh, I love Stranger Things. Can I have a picture?’ And he just gives this masterclass in being able to say no nicely.”
Another memory Fisher cherishes was surprisingly from a difficult day on set, when Millie Bobby Brown took it upon herself to take a break and have some fun.
“We were filming episode eight — it was stressful, it was tiring, it was tricky,” the Bookworm star recalls. “Millie took me and a whole load of other kids aside and we all choreographed a dance to ‘Please, Please, Please’ by Sabrina Carpenter, and I still remember it. To this day, I think of it whenever the song comes on.”
In addition to Fisher, Jake Connelly and Alex Breaux are other newcomers appearing in the final season of Stranger Things. In June 2023, Netflix also announced that Terminator star Linda Hamilton was joining the cast.
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Stranger Things season 5 Volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix. Volume 2 drops on Dec. 25, and the finale on Dec. 31.
