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"That's upsetting," the 'Stranger Things' star, now 21, recalled saying after the woman's declaration, while her startled daughter said, "Mom what the f--k?'
Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo has been a major star in the public eye for nearly a decade now, so he's had a lot of strange fan interactions -- but one has really stood out for being more than just "a little uncomfortable."
The 21-year-old actor was just 13 when the hit Netflix series first took the nation by storm, and apparently that's when he first caught the eye of one fan.
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View StorySpeaking of those fan events, Matarazzo told Michael Rosenbaum on his Inside of You podcast, "I did one very recently -- and this is not very funny, but the reactions around it were quite funny -- where this woman in her 40s said straight up, 'I’ve had a crush on you since you were 13.'"
Matarazzo recalled his immediate reaction, as well as others at the public event. "I was like, 'That's upsetting.' I'm sure she just meant, 'Aw, this kid's cute,'" he said, before revealing she meant exactly what she said.
"She was like, 'I'm aware of the age difference.' And then I was like, 'Alright,'" Matarazzo said. "And her daughter was with her, and her daughter goes, 'Mom, what the f--k?' I swear to God." He added that the daughter was about 13 years old herself.
The actor said he couldn't even bring himself to laugh about the experience, instead he said he just looked over at his mother, who was on the dais with him. "That was rough," he said of the memory.
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View StoryDespite sometimes questionable fan encounters, Matarazzo expressed his unending appreciation for what Stranger Things has done for him, as well as a full satisfaction if this turns out to be his career peak.
"Careers are always about peaks and values. With this show it is quite clear and I am very well aware, and would like my professional team to understand that I am very okay with Stranger Things being very likely the biggest thing I will ever do," he said. "And it will most likely be the thing I am remembered for even if I consistently work after this."
He said that as long as his work on this series "facilitates happiness going forward, security and more work going forward," what more could he want?
"I don't want to maintain a sense of relevance at this point when it isn’t even something I particularly enjoy that much," he said.
An immediate hit when it first launched in 2016, the Duffer Brothers ode to the 1980s horror genre, Stranger Things has continued to be a part of the cultural zeitgeist ever since. Filming is currently underway on its fifth and final season, slated for a 2025 premiere on Netflix.
