Charlie Heaton has reflected on the impact of becoming a father aged 20, saying that he had to “grow up very fast.”
The Stranger Things star, 31, who shares an 11-year-old son named Archie with his ex Akiko Matsuura, said that being a young father made him “learn ethical priorities” early on in his life.
“You want to give them good experiences and a lot of love and the hard part obviously is distance,” he told Wonderland magazine. “But that’s part of the sacrifice.”
He continued: “Being a young father, you have to grow up very fast,” he said, adding: “You’ve got to look after somebody.”
Heaton and Matsuura met while in the underground rock band Comanechi, which was fronted by Matsuura and formed in 2005.
Around the time that Archie was born in 2014, Heaton was transitioning from his career in music to acting, and was first cast in an ad for a Swiss insurance company.
He had small roles on TV shows including DCI Banks, Vera and Casualty, before landing his breakthrough role as Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things.
Heaton also reflected on his nine-year relationship with his on-screen love interest and co-star Natalia Dyer, calling it a “gift” to work with his best friend.
“To be able to have a shared experience with your partner about the anxiety when you don’t get a job — I know what that feels like, she knows what that feels like,” he said.
He continued: “You can be there to talk about it, or when you have a s*** day at work, or come away from a scene and you didn’t think it worked,” he continued. “To be able to both understand each other on that level is great.”
The pair started working together on the series before making their red carpet debut as a couple in 2017.
Dyer has previously spoken about their working relationship, saying: “It’s an interesting thing to work with somebody who you go home with.”
“It’s always really fun. We’re really comfortable with each other, so we can play and feel more free, and we can talk about it before,” she told Refinery29 in 2019.
Heaton will next appear in HBO’s next installment of Industry, about a dysfunctional group of graduates who met working at a London investment bank after the 2008 financial crisis. He will play a financial journalist called Jim Dycker.
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