“Karen Wheeler doesn't turn into a Navy SEAL,” says Cara Buono of her big season five moment. “But I really wanted her to feel that transformation. At that moment, she comes out of the shadows and becomes part of Hawkins' story.”
Photo: Netflix
The following contains spoilers for the first four episodes of season five. Stranger Thingswhich debuted November 26 on Netflix.
Stranger Things for five seasons, it adhered to the core principle that anyone in Hawkins can become a hero. This time it's Karen Wheeler's (Cara Buono) turn. In a dramatic fight scene in episode two, “The Disappearance of Holly Wheeler”, Karen comes into close contact with the Demogorgon, stabbing the monster over and over again with a broken wine bottle to save her youngest daughter Holly (Nell Fisher). The battle ends with Holly in the Upside Down and Karen close to death, but the information she gives to her other children, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard), about who took Holly helps the siblings and their friends get closer to figuring out how to defeat their longtime enemy, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).
WITH Stranger Things In the beginning, Karen was a supportive but closed-minded mom to Nancy and Mike as they worked together to save the world. Buono played her character with compassion, verve, and enough attitude to make viewers wonder how much of what's going on in Hawkins is something she's picking up on from behind her evening and late-night glasses of wine. (This wine is a character trait that Buono herself suggested early in the series to justify why Karen seemed unaware that her family was constantly in mortal danger.) Karen loved her children unconditionally, but aside from her season three flirtation with junior lifeguard Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery), she was largely a tertiary character. Buono wasn't expecting much more, which is why she was so surprised and delighted to learn that Karen would be given the heroic “badass mom” role in this first half of the film. Stranger Thingslast season.
“Maybe I need to do more action films. I joked with the stunt team that I think it's time for superhero films like John Wick But with middle-aged suburban moms. From the pool with your knees or something like that?” Buono laughs, referring to Karen's excuse for why she spent so much time in the Hawkins pool two seasons ago. “I wasn't nervous about it. I just felt really ready.”
Did you have any inkling that Karen would be playing a heroic role this season?
Honestly, no. I kind of agreed that Karen would be a comedic, generic, slightly exaggeratedly clueless 80's mom, and I thought that was how she would end the series. In season four, after the earthquake, she says to Ted something like, “That’s exactly what we need—more hysteria.” This is a real earthquake! So many people died! And I thought: Okay, this is how it will come out.
I was very surprised and very happy about this. I always thought she was really clueless in terms of character. Towards the end of the first season, as an actor I thought: How can I justify the fact that Karen doesn't really know what's going on? And I said: I'll drink as much as possible. At 16:00 she started drinking. She hides a lot of things. I always gave her a whole subtext and a whole life. This is what I always do when I approach a role, especially if it's not very big. But I'm so happy to be part of an amazing story. And the Duffers, to my surprise, used it quite extensively. They included this element that I use to keep the truth of this for myself.
When this season begins, Joyce and her sons Jonathan and Will have moved in with the Wheelers. I felt that Karen seemed happy that they were there and took joy in feeding and housing these people, but I'm curious what you thought about her headspace.
Karen brought Joyce a casserole in season one. Karen always makes an effort. Unlike Ted, she enjoys having a crowd in her house; it's none of his business. But Hawkins has been in quarantine for a year. We even talked in great detail about how my season four perm is now very flat. She had no chance of being supported. Although I think she's happy to have the Byers with her, she drinks more. If we saw her diary, she would talk about how, although there are many people in her house, she feels very lonely and isolated. This is something she never tells Nancy. season three kitchen scene. There are probably hopes and dreams that she never followed through on. There's a lot of subtext there.
Tell me about the battle with Demogorgon. What was the production schedule like for you?
This was a year ago. When they first pitched the film to me, they had a storyboard and a previz. It was really fun to see. We talked to the stunt guys for a long time, and the Duffers had a very clear idea of the choreography of this whole thing. I had a plan and I was ready to fight. We spent the day figuring out how wet the bath would be and how warm it would be. There was a large tank where Nell and I were seeing how long we could hold our breath and see some camera angles. We spoke with costume designer Amy Parris about the nightgown and how it will flow. It was wet and very slippery all the time and we knew there would always be an element of danger. Between each take we had to be hosed down to make sure we looked just like we'd come straight out of the bath. We were soaking wet.
We started filming in January 2024. We were supposed to shoot in May, then everything was postponed to the beginning of March. But I was ready for this. We had a great time with an amazing stunt team. That day everything went very well: I got out of the bath, ran down the stairs, slipped in the kitchen. When we got to the bottle of wine, I wanted to make sure I looked really strong. I didn't do any combat training; I increased my gym time to feel stronger. I did a lot of push-ups to energize the stage. When it came to attacking the Demogorgon, I just went for it and made sure I had my mom's adrenaline and fierce feeling for it.
I love that it's essentially a tribute Aliens and you do the same thing as Ripley.
I asked, “Can I write a line where I say, 'Stay away from my daughter, bitch'? Let me do it!” When I realized we had it figured out, I did one take where I said, “Stay away from my daughter, bitch,” just in case the editor said, “Actually, let's use that.” It exists somewhere.
How did you film the attack scene itself?
Karen Wheeler doesn't turn into a Navy SEAL – she's a mother attacking the thing. But I really wanted her to feel that transformation. At this point, she emerges from the shadows and becomes part of Hawkins' story. They had many different angles that could be used for editing. There were a lot of hits, a lot of repetitions. There were three ways to shoot special effects. There was a stuntman dressed as a tall Demogorgon, so when I was attacked, I could work with another actor instead of just pretending. Then there is a special effects ball and you aim at it. And then the third aspect was to really feel like hitting the real Demogorgon. There was a board with writing on it that I could attack. My wine bottle would get stuck in it and I would have to pull it out as if it were piercing the Demogorgon's flesh. This will help you more than just punching the air.
The board, to be honest, is somehow faulty. I found out it was the wrong board and I was breathing in all sorts of particles and stuff and it was heavier than it should have been. We had to change it and do it again.
When Mike and Nancy are admitted to the hospital, they are very worried about their mother. But they are not at all bothered by their father Ted, played by Joe Chrest. He was injured too!
We talked about this. But let's give it to Ted – he could have saved himself, but he took a golf club and attacked the Demogorgon. Both Wheeler's parents stepped up. It goes through the wall! But it fits with Ted Wheeler's joke. “Where is dad?” “Oh, we don't know. Down the hall?” There is not even a conversation about this. But it's nice that Karen goes from being a bystander to someone who takes on the show's darkness herself because her family is at the center of it all. I'm very glad this happened.
You played Karen throughout the show. Were there any tropes or stereotypes about 80s moms that you wanted to challenge with your performance?
There's this clueless '80s mom trope, but I think that's a necessary part of the story. We long for the freedom that these kids had, where the parents weren't as in the know because they just weren't as attached. I always run into kids who say, “I wish we had that kind of freedom now. I wish we could go back to the '80s.”
This question makes me think about how we perceive moms in particular. I often come across this question – about how to play a mother and how to reduce yourself to a mother. There comes a point in an actor's life when you get mom roles and many actors go crazy about it. This is because we see these people as one-dimensional supporting characters who don't do much. I never wanted to buy into it. Whenever I approach a role, I don't necessarily think about trying to do something with it to make a statement, I just think about being truthful and authentic to the character and the story. I hope people see a woman who loves her children passionately, is instinctively protective, and can finally show viewers the fullness of who she is. Never underestimate the quiet ones.
You mentioned Karen's wine as a turning point, given that she uses a bottle of wine to protect Holly. Another full-circle moment for me was when the doctor disparages Nancy and because of this she refuses to limit herself to an older man. season three scene when Karen tells Nancy to believe in herself and never let people limit her. Have you thought about Karen's long-term impact on Nancy, Mike and the other kids on the show?
Her influence on children is that unconditional, unwavering support and love that you can only truly get from your mother if you are lucky enough to have a good mother. She encouraged them to take risks and rise to the occasion. In the end, Karen comes out on top. I think audiences probably wouldn't notice it, but they wouldn't be surprised.
Karen always had some kind of inner strength about her and you can see that in all of her children. She gave them courage. Look at what Mike and Nancy do, and then Holly – they're looking for their friends, they're doing intense things, and they're very, very brave. I'd like to think they got it from Karen. And let's give Ted credit because he didn't run away either. If they ever have children, Nancy, Mike or Holly, they will say, “Our mother was so strong and strong. We owe a lot of who we are to her.”
