United Kingdom, Nov. 13 -- Gaten Matarazzo's own grief helped inform his performance in Stranger Things season five.

The 23-year-old actor lost his cousin Joey, who was 19, in a car accident in 2020 and looking at the different ways his family processed the situation helped him to understand the "personality shift" his alter ego Dustin Henderson has revealed in the upcoming episodes following the death of his close friend Eddie Munson (Joseph Quin) in the season four finale.

Gaten told NME: "His personality shift seems very rooted in his inability to helpfully grieve.

"I wouldn't be celebratory of his shift, because it does lead him to a pickle or two. He's in a darker place which makes him distant. Weirdly enough, those times where pe...