Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower brought out the musical side of Vecna during a TV interview.
In an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the British actor didn’t shy away from the talk show host’s hilarious request for Vecna to bless the mic with a Lizzo song.
Fallon challenged him to a game of reading cue cards of things Vecna would never say. Campbell Bower playfully rose to the occasion and used a voice modulation microphone to recite lines from classic romance films like Notting Hill and Titanic, as well as Sonny The Cuckoo Bird’s famous catchphrase.
But the crowning glory was when Campbell Bower spat Lizzo’s iconic rap from It’s About Damn Time, after which he collapsed into a fit of laughter amidst rollicking applause from the audience.
Who knew that the Upside Down could get funky?
Campbell Bower explained that it took time to create Vecna’s creepy baritone. He explained that his goal was for Vecna to sound like “a deep booming voice that comes out of the darkness.” He found some inspiration in Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare On Elm Street (Robert Englund) but his biggest influence came from Pinhead (Doug Bradley) from the Hellraiser films.
His crack at Lizzo’s hit song is hardly Campbell Bower’s first time on the musical rodeo. For five years he was the frontman of the award-winning punk rock group Counterfeit, and on Aug. 12 he is releasing a new single as a solo artist called I Am.
His acting career continues to flourish. In addition to his work on Stranger Things, Campbell Bower will be co-starring in Horizon, a new series of western films by Academy Award-winning writer, director and actor Kevin Costner.
Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.