Charlie Heaton Breaks From His Familiar Roles in Netflix’s Below

Charlie Heaton’s latest role takes him far from the quiet, empathetic young men audiences know him for. In Netflix’s Below, he plays Wade, a restless, loud and abrasive local in a Newfoundland fishing village threatened by a creature beneath the water. The series opened to 17 million viewers, setting a record for a Canadian Netflix production, while giving Heaton a chance to make a sharp turn from Jonathan Byers on Stranger Things.

That shift is the thread running through his conversation with former Industry co-star Kiernan Shipka. They talk about finding a character through wardrobe and place, building an accent, preparing enough to feel free on set, and deciding what to pursue after spending much of a decade inside one role. The interview took place in New York City on October 6, 2026, a few days before Below premiered.

A new voice after a long-running role

Shipka opens with the story of how she and Heaton met. She was testing a weighted vest in a park when she spotted him talking kindly with a Welsh Stranger Things fan. Heaton, wearing a hat and headphones and walking with his head down, initially thought Shipka was another person who had recognized him. She had to introduce herself. Shipka remembers the encounter as funny; Heaton recalls feeling embarrassed that he hadn’t recognized her.

The moment leads naturally to Heaton’s move from Stranger Things to Industry, his first project after the former. He had spent years playing a 20-year-old and wanted work that would reconnect him with his British voice. His UK agent, Ollie Azis, encouraged him to find a distinctly British part. Heaton says many people didn’t realize he was British, even when he was spending time in London, so the role felt like a homecoming.

His audition didn’t begin with a confident plan. He tried a posh accent, then reached a long final scene—10 pages, as he remembers—and grew frustrated at the volume of material. He stopped trying to shape the performance and simply read it. That less controlled take brought out his own voice, and the team asked him to continue in that register. The experience helped open a new chapter after a decade playing a notably kind character.

Shipka recognizes the parallel with her own transition from Mad Men and Sabrina. After inhabiting Sally Draper for years, she had to build new characters from the ground up, instead of drawing on a history she had grown up performing. For both actors, stepping into more adult roles meant finding ways to surprise audiences who already associated them with earlier parts.

Preparation that leaves room for instinct

Shipka admires how seriously Heaton prepares while still seeming loose and playful on camera. He says that freedom comes when he’s enjoying the work, though anxiety often arrives in the weeks before a project. He can start from the fear that the production will expose him as a fraud. With Industry, the dialogue and pace seemed especially daunting. Still, he says, he finds a way into each role.

Heaton describes himself as someone who struggled to concentrate at school and rarely did homework, but who can focus intensely when a subject matters to him. Acting draws on that same ability. He learns his lines and researches enough that he can arrive on set ready to respond, rather than spending the day trying to remember what comes next. Shipka calls preparation a gift to one’s future self: it makes play possible.

His approach changes with each character. He tries to immerse himself in the role and let parts of its world shape the time he’s filming. That can mean observing people in a particular place, as he did while walking around Canary Wharf during Industry, or talking through the character’s point of view by himself. He also runs regularly. Shipka teases him about going out drinking; Heaton laughs and accepts the suggestion as another possible form of research.

For Below, the character didn’t become clear to him until he arrived and put on the wardrobe. He had only a vague idea beforehand; the clothes helped make Wade feel specific. Shipka says she was surprised by Heaton’s first appearance, riding an ATV. The contrast with his earlier, gentler roles is part of the appeal: Wade is explosive, brash and difficult to mistake for Jonathan Byers.

Learning the shape of a Newfoundland community

The cast’s accents were another part of building a shared world. Some performers are from Newfoundland, while Heaton, Josh Hartnett and Rohan Campbell, who plays Heaton’s brother, are Canadian, and Ruby Stokes, who plays his sister, is British. The actors took remote accent sessions with a coach from Newfoundland, with the aim of sounding as though the characters came from the same place.

Heaton also found the setting through its people. He describes the sense of community Jesse McKeown captured as central to the series. During filming, Heaton ate supper at his driver’s home and met his family. Visits to local bars often turned into long conversations. People welcomed him, shared stories and wanted to make sure he felt at home.

Heaton connects that openness to the practical realities of small fishing towns. Neighbors depend on one another, especially when distances are long and even a basic errand can mean a drive of hours. He tried to blend in when he went out, though people sometimes recognized him. Once he explained what he was filming and whom he played, residents shared stories that helped him understand the community around Wade.

That kind of listening complements his more private preparation. A character’s backstory can’t always be borrowed from years spent with the part, as it was for Shipka with Sally or Heaton with Jonathan. In a new role, the actor has to construct that history, then stay open to the details that emerge from the people and places surrounding the production.

Choosing roles that change the picture

Heaton says Stranger Things felt like school. The series, and Jonathan, were part of his life for 10 years and much of his twenties. He didn’t feel identical to the character, but the Duffer Brothers knew him well enough to write aspects of him into Jonathan. Now, at 30, he wants to approach acting differently and find parts that continue to surprise him.

That means resisting the easy return to a familiar type. Heaton knows that the work an actor has already done shapes what people expect to see next. Below interested him because Wade felt distinct on the page. The science-fiction premise gave him some pause: the show could have landed in a tone reminiscent of Stranger Things. Yet Wade himself was the opposite of Jonathan—loud, abrasive and volatile—and Heaton found that difference energizing.

Shipka agrees that he seems to be having fun, even in the show’s intense moments. Their exchange also turns to Peaky Blinders, another project Heaton approached with a mix of excitement and nerves. He had followed the series for years and was determined to audition. While in New York, he chose to fly to London for the final audition rather than do it remotely.

Heaton wrapped the project that year. Aware of the cast’s legacy, he spent four months focused on the work: staying in a hotel, learning lines and going to the gym, with little socializing. He has seen some of the result and is excited, though he knows the new chapter will be judged in the context of the show’s history and the absence of Cillian Murphy. For him, walking onto sets he had watched for years required a quick reset: admire the moment, then get back to the job.

Watching the work, then stepping away

Neither actor claims to find watching their own performances effortless. Heaton says he treats it as a chance to see what worked and what didn’t, remembering that the script, the filmed performance and the finished version are different things. Shipka says she can be sharply judgmental on a first viewing, though watching Industry premiere on a big screen with friends was a pleasure. Once she starts analyzing which take made the final cut, the fun fades.

Heaton suggests that watching with directors can bring a different kind of enjoyment: it’s a chance to see their reaction to a project they’ve shaped. Shipka says that on set, she’s happy when the directors are happy. Their work can become a shared experience, even for performers who feel awkward about hosting a screening or putting themselves in the spotlight.

Heaton hints that another small project is due soon, but says he can’t discuss it. After that, he wants a pause. Years of work can mean inhabiting a string of “pseudo lives,” as he puts it, and he wants time to reconnect with his own. He has bought a place in London and plans to work on the home, renovate, establish a base and perhaps travel later in the year.

Shipka jokes that this sounds like Eat, Pray, Love for Charlie. Heaton’s reason is straightforward: he doesn’t want to reach a point where he resents the demands of a film set. A project takes a lot from an actor, and he wants to be able to enjoy what the work has produced while considering what to do next.

Asked whether he’d try comedy, Heaton wonders if he’s funny. Shipka says she thinks he is and urges him to take on something lighter, noting that his recent parts often put him through the wringer. She grew up doing improv and feels at ease with comedy; Heaton describes himself as having grown up dark. The suggestion leaves a useful possibility open: after a decade of familiar parts and several demanding roles, a lighter turn could be another way to catch audiences—and himself—off guard.

The conversation closes on their friendship. Shipka is at home behind a large bar she rarely uses, with a signed photo of Ike Barinholtz among her birthday gifts. She’s preparing to travel to New Zealand for a film and promises to send Heaton pictures from Auckland. His immediate plans point toward London and a slower stretch between projects; hers toward another production abroad. Both leave the next chapter open, with room for work that feels different from what came before.

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