Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo opens up about social challenges as a non-gaming kid

To anyone who had strict parents that worried too much about video games: Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo sees you. While his friends were logging hours in Call of Duty, he was limited to mastering Wii Sports. Mom preferred “family-oriented” games over first-person shooters.

The gap between what he could play and what everyone else was talking about stuck with him. It’s funny now, hearing Matarazzo laugh about Guitar Hero obsessions and Wii Fit nostalgia, but there’s an edge to those memories too.

“I was bummed every time my mom brought it up that I wasn’t really allowed to play a lot of violent games,” he tells Polygon. The game wasn’t that important but the friendships were. “It’s getting in the way of me being able to socialize,” he remembers telling his mom.

This month, we’re thrilled to have Matarazzo as a guest on Shelf Quest, Polygon’s new YouTube series about the games that shape us. Because for him, games weren’t just entertainment — they were something slightly out of reach, something to chase. And then, like something out of a coming-of-age movie, the rules changed.

When Matarazzo broke out as a child actor — as a theater actor, and then on a little show called Stranger Things — the strict boundaries around games softened almost overnight. Working long hours, being exposed to more adult environments, his mom recalibrated. Suddenly, the kid who had to sneak rounds of Black Ops at a cousin’s house (waiting until the adults went to bed, no less) had a bit more freedom to explore the medium on his own terms.

That late start shaped his taste in a way that feels uniquely Shelf Quest-y. Matarazzo didn’t grow up grinding through every annual release, but he dove in hard when he finally could. Today he talks about Breath of the Wild with the kind of reverence that his older costars might talk about Steven Spielberg movies.

There’s also a kind of self-awareness in how he talks about it all now. Matarazzo doesn’t dismiss his mom’s instincts — he gets it. But he also recognizes how easy it is for well-meaning restrictions to overshoot their target.

Matarazzo, who’s currently juggling a post-Stranger Things career that includes a new Hulu comedy (Pizza Movie) and a role in Andy Serkis’ upcoming Animal Farm, could have easily phoned in his appearance on Shelf Quest. Instead, he shows up as exactly who he is: a genuine, slightly obsessive, deeply thoughtful player who still remembers what it felt like to be on the outside looking in.

Enjoy his stories on the latest episode of Shelf Quest.

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