David Harbour Worries Younger Stranger Things Co-Stars Will Never Understand What It's Like To Have Normal Lives

Stranger Things star David Harbour has said he is worried his younger co-stars will never get to experience a normal life.

Harbour, 47, also said he feels lucky that he didn't become famous until he was 40 years old, having witnessed what his younger co-stars experienced after debuting on the hit show in their preteens.

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times for its The Envelope podcast, Harbour said: " I know what it's like to go to the mall. I know what it's like to be bullied and humiliated. People not think I'm great. I know what it's like to have to find friends, not to have people come to me. I don't know that they'll ever have that feeling."

He added: "I see what these kids have to deal with and, look, whatever. I mean, there's a lot of people that go through, I guess, a lot worse stuff. But mentally and psychologically, I think getting extremely famous and being so doted on at 11 years old is really hard for the psyche to reconcile with."

Stranger Things first premiered in 2016 and has since become Netflix's biggest show, with cast members such as Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard becoming household names for their performance in the show.

18-year-old Brown, who portrays Eleven, was only 12 years old when the show first premiered, and has spent her teen years growing up in the public eye.

The actress has found herself being sexualised by strangers on the internet and has since condemned the media after a flood on inappropriate comments were left on her Instagram post on her 16th birthday.

In a post, she wrote: "There are moments I get frustrated from the inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization, and unnecessary insults that ultimately have resulted in pain and insecurity for me."

Harbour, who plays Brown's on-screen adoptive father, Jim Hopper, has said he feels the frustration for his younger cast members, despite not having a 'close offscreen' relationship with Brown.

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, he said: "I feel all the feelings that Hopper, you know, feels in a sense, and then I have to struggle with the control idea, and I have to struggle with my own saviour complex."

Stranger Things season four is now available to stream on Netflix.