Don’t Worry, Even ‘Stranger Things 4’ Star Mason Dye Thinks Jason’s ‘the Worst’ [Exclusive]
Stranger Things 4 gave us several new characters this season, including Jason Carver, played by Oklahoma native Mason Dye. Jason, captain of the basketball team and stereotypical ’80s bully, targets Eddie (Joseph Quinn) after mistaking him for Chrissy Cunningham’s (Grace Van Dien) murderer. Dye stopped by Showbiz Cheat Sheet to chat with us about playing a character everyone loves to hate.
Where is Mason Dye from, and where have you seen him before?
Dye’s role in Stranger Things 4 isn’t the first time the actor snagged a role in a young adult series. He played a character named Garrett in MTV’s Teen Wolf series. Plus, he had an eight-episode arc in Secret Diary of an American Cheerleader. Dye also played Christopher in the Lifetime series based around the famous V.C. Andrews novel, Flowers in the Attic.
Dye was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, but called Ada, Oklahoma, home throughout his adolescent years. Dye’s sister, Taylor “Tae” Dye, is part of the popular country duo Maddie and Tae. You also might have caught Dye in the video for Maddie and Tae’s song, “Shut Up and Fish.”
Dye didn’t think his ‘Stranger Things 4’ character Jason Carver was ‘intimidating enough’
Dye couldn’t give us much information about the remaining two episodes of Stranger Things 4. Although, we did dig into Jason’s role. Jason’s anger over Chrissy’s death pushes him to rile the entire town up to get them to search for Eddie Munson. However, Dye was shocked at how awful Jason turned out to be on screen.
“I didn’t realize that, honestly, filming it until I watched it. I was like, ‘I don’t think he’s going to be intimidating enough. I don’t think he’s going to be scary enough.’ And then watching it back, I was like, ‘Oh, this guy is the worst!'” Dye told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
Dye continued, “That type of role for me, honestly, is the hardest one to play because, I mean, I don’t even raise my voice in real life. I’m pretty chill. But, it’s definitely the hardest type of character to play for me as someone that’s a bully and intimidating. Once you kind of get into it, it gets easier.”
Why Caleb McLaughlin sometimes made it hard for Mason Dye to get into character
Dye told us how close he grew with other cast members in Stranger Things 4, including Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas Sinclair. The two share the most scenes together, so it makes sense that they became friends.
We asked Dye whether or not his friendships made it hard to transform into the bully terrorizing a group of Hawkins teens. He replied, “Even while in character, I laughed so much while shooting this, because it is, it’s tough too, once you get so close to everybody. I love Caleb to death. He’s like a brother to me now, but it is so hard once you get to that level of being so close to somebody, trying to be serious in front of them or mean or intimidating or whatever. So yeah, it was very difficult for sure.”
The countdown for Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 is on with only two episodes remaining. Volume 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
