Noah Schnapp has revealed that he was asked to speak in a higher pitch to hide the effects of puberty as his character, Will, was still a child in Stranger Things. In an interview for Flaunt, Schnapp talked about how the main cast's puberty imposed some challenges to production.
When season 1 of Stranger Things was released in 2016, the kids cast was perfectly aged to play seventh graders. However, the production of the next seasons took much longer and the cast aged faster than their characters. Schnapp is turning 18 next month, while his character Will is only 14 years old in the series.
During one season, a producer had to ask Schnapp to force his voice to come out in a higher pitch.
“It was the peak time of change, and puberty and growing up and just everything was changing with all of us, and the directors were just not loving it. And I remember one of the producers coming up to me and telling me, ‘Noah, is there any way you could just speak in a higher tone and just slouch a little bit? Like, we need you to keep that Season 1 innocence that you had.’ That was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you. My voice is dropping. I don’t sound young anymore.’”