Welcome back to the Pizza Interview, a series from New York Times Cooking where the Q&A has a catch: Our guests have to make pizza.
After much anticipation, “Stranger Things” is back for its fifth and final season. The science-fiction horror series, set in the 1980s, follows a group of kids from the fictional town of Hawkins, Ind., whose lives are upended when a boy mysteriously disappears and a telekinetic girl named Eleven appears. Finn Wolfhard and Natalia Dyer play Mike and Nancy Wheeler, siblings drawn into the otherworldly mysteries surrounding Hawkins. The final episode airs on Dec. 31.
Watch the full video below (or on YouTube), and read ahead for excerpts from the interview and outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.
Have you ever made a pizza before?
FINN WOLFHARD We talked about doing many pizza nights, when we shot the last season of “Stranger Things,” and then never did it and always ended up maybe spending an hour and a half trying to figure out what we were going to end up ordering.
NATALIA DYER Yeah, that’s usually how it goes.
WOLFHARD But then there were great times when you cooked and Charlie [Heaton] cooked.
DYER Cooking was fun. But yeah, pizza feels a little intimidating, not gonna lie.
WOLFHARD It’s such a simple thing that seems so easy.
DYER But you can really mess it up.
WOLFHARD Which is probably what I’m gonna do today.
Credit…Victoria Chen
Do you like to cook?
WOLFHARD I love cooking. I don’t do it enough. I love cooking Asian cuisine.
DYER You had that fun dinner party. He cooked for a bunch of us.
WOLFHARD I had a little dinner party where I cooked Japanese hot pot. It was way too salty.
DYER It was so cute. I liked it!
WOLFHARD I was dehydrated for a few days afterward. Oh, I did kimchi stew recently. That was actually good. With pork belly. Super easy.
DYER You also did — there was Canadian Thanksgiving as well.
WOLFHARD I cooked a ham for Canadian Thanksgiving. I told the group chat, I was like, “Hey, everybody, come over for ham on Canadian Thanksgiving.” And everyone’s first response was, “This is a joke, right? You’re cooking a ham?” I was like, “No, it’s not a joke.” I don’t joke, ever. Ever. Especially about ham.
What’s your favorite pizza place?
DYER I’ve been heavily influenced by some friends of mine, and I’d say Emmett’s on Grove. Little thin, crispy slices.
WOLFHARD I don’t know I grew up eating Domino’s. I grew up eating Papa John’s. I grew up eating Pizza Hut.
DYER Yeah, it’s nostalgic.
Growing up, what was your family’s pizza order?
WOLFHARD Cheese or pepperoni, probably. But then my brother started to getting into, like, jalapeños and pineapples and green peppers and all this stuff. It’s too much.
DYER I think, when I was younger, I was definitely just a cheese kind of girl. I always loved that garlic dipping sauce. That was the move.
WOLFHARD Oh, yeah, from Papa John’s.
Credit…Taylor Miller for The New York Times
If you were to show each other around your hometowns, what’s the first thing you’d eat?
DYER Probably go to East Nashville. There’s this one pocket with a record store and a drum store over there.
WOLFHARD East Nashville, yeah. Just don’t take me anywhere that isn’t a hipster place. ‘Cause I will hate it. No $45 cup of coffee? No, thanks.
DYER Oh, man, I’d take you to Bolton’s for some hot chicken. Nashville hot chicken.
WOLFHARD My favorite restaurant in Vancouver… Well, I’d take you to go get the best cinnamon buns ever. Of your whole entire life. Grounds for Coffee cinnamon buns. They are, like, truly the best. Toshi Sushi. Danbo has a few locations around the world, but Danbo Ramen is really good. And if it’s the summer, riding bikes to the beach.
DYER That sounds lovely.
Is there a food that reminds you of being on the “Stranger Things” set?
WOLFHARD Oh, yes! So many.
DYER Oh yeah. A few.
WOLFHARD Doughnuts and, like, chicken wings.
DYER The cookies. The chocolate chip cookies at catering. Just all the snacks.
WOLFHARD It always starts off, like, healthy.
DYER Oh, you try.
WOLFHARD People try to be. But then like Month 6, it’s like here’s your Danimal. Here’s your Lunchable. We’re just trying to survive.
Having played siblings for the past 10 years, would you say you two are like siblings at all?
BOTH Yeah!
WOLFHARD Although we don’t fight. I feel like siblings fight. Well, maybe some siblings get along. How often do you fight with your sisters?
DYER Nowadays? I feel like fighting is something you do when you grow up. When you’re growing up and you’re sharing things and you’re learning how to navigate living with a sibling. But yeah, we grew past that phase.
WOLFHARD Also, I was like, 12. It would have been weird for like a 20-year-old person to be fighting with a 12-year-old.
DYER It was more protective. It was like, “Don’t do what I did!”
WOLFHARD Yeah, I got a lot of that. From the beginning I got a lot of “Don’t do that!”
DYER Just me processing my 20s and telling them, “When you get there, don’t do that.”
WOLFHARD It’s a really sweet relationship. I feel like I can just go to Nat for advice. Sister stuff. I lived around the corner from where Nat was living, and I would just show up when I was in peril and just talk with Nat.
DYER Aw, it was so nice having you guys so close.
If you were a food dish, what would you be? Can you answer for each other?
DYER I feel like you’re some kind of noodle dish.
WOLFHARD Oh, just because of the way I look, too.
DYER Yeah, you’re tall.
WOLFHARD And the hair.
DYER Yeah, I feel like you think a lot. Kind of noodlin’ around in there.
WOLFHARD For you, the first place my head went was like a really good pie. Like, strawberry rhubarb or something. Because it’s, like, sweet. But then it also has wisdom of like, you know, being part of the earth. Being a root. Being rooted.
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