{"id":2207801,"date":"2025-12-21T19:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2207801"},"modified":"2025-12-21T19:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:17:07","slug":"dacre-montgomery-on-dead-mans-wire-and-stranger-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/dacre-montgomery-on-dead-mans-wire-and-stranger-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Dacre Montgomery on Dead Man’s Wire and Stranger Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThere\u2019s a particular way Dacre Montgomery<\/a> answers questions.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s not evasive, but circuitous, like someone walking the perimeter of a truth before deciding how to enter it.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe starts somewhere unexpected, drifts into tangents, then loops back with startling precision to land exactly where he meant to go all along. It\u2019s the conversational equivalent of his career: seemingly wandering, but actually following some internal compass invisible to everyone else.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen we meet to discuss \u201cDead Man\u2019s Wire,\u201d Gus Van Sant\u2019s darkly comedic exploration of America\u2019s media obsession, Montgomery is five days removed from wrapping his directorial debut. He\u2019s been editing in the car on the way over to the Variety<\/em> offices. There\u2019s an intensity to him, barely contained, like someone who\u2019s discovered they have more to say than any single medium can hold.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGus definitely feels like my spirit animal,\u201d Montgomery says, with a boyish earnestness. He recounts how Van Sant called him out of nowhere about playing one of the leads: Dick Cole, a 55-year-old man, opposite Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s 48-year-old character.<\/p>\n

\n\tMontgomery is 30, Australian, and built nothing like the real-life Cole. \u201cI was like, this is really interesting,\u201d he says with characteristic understatement. \u201cBut I think what I learned in the meeting is just how kind, pure, unfiltered, and creative a spirit that Gus is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s that unfiltered quality Montgomery keeps returning to \u2014 in Van Sant, in the actors he admires, in the kind of artist he\u2019s trying to become. He describes the auteur as someone who \u201cjust kind of follows his gut in the purest way,\u201d reading the script and immediately thinking: \u201cWhen it\u2019s Dacre and Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film itself \u2014 about two men who become unlikely media sensations during a 1977 kidnapping \u2014 functions as both a period piece and a mirror. \u201cIt\u2019s fascinating as an Australian to watch the news cycle out of the U.S.,\u201d Montgomery observes, mentioning recent political events with an archness that suggests he sees the patterns Van Sant is illuminating.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s, unfortunately, extremely topical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he\u2019s quick to note how the film\u2019s sly comedic elements make it more than mere commentary: \u201cIt subverts your expectations, and it makes the film more accessible than it otherwise would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince \u201cStranger Things<\/a>\u201d made him recognizable nearly a decade ago, playing Max\u2019s brother who becomes an unwilling host of the Mind Flayer, Montgomery has worked sporadically, appearing in only a handful of projects. It\u2019s the selective approach that can read as precious or privileged, at least at first glance, depending on your generosity.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut listening to Montgomery explain it, something else emerges. \u201cI am process driven, not outcome driven,\u201d he says with the conviction of someone who\u2019s had to defend this position before. \u201cI never go and watch the movie beyond one time at the premiere. It\u2019s not about the outcome. It\u2019s not about the box office or the streaming thing; people like it, don\u2019t like it. It\u2019s not part of my process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe pauses, making sure the point lands. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve taken the last six, seven years off, and just did one other film with Vicky Krieps, which was \u2018She Came Up the Hill\u2019 before Gus\u2019s film. And that film changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a radical position in an industry that measures everything by metrics, and Montgomery knows it. But he\u2019s not being contrarian for its own sake. There\u2019s a vulnerability beneath the stance, one he eventually articulates through an unexpected story about reconnecting with his grandmother in New Zealand. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter finishing \u201cShe Came Up the Hill,\u201d he spent a week with her and realized something he\u2019d been avoiding: \u201cI feel like I absorb a lot of people\u2019s energies. With \u2018Stranger Things,\u2019 because of the subscriber base of Netflix, overnight, my whole life changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis admission hangs in the air. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI realized all I\u2019m pursuing is trying to be an actor because<\/em> I love movies. I haven\u2019t been pursuing it because I wanted to get known or to get money. I was suddenly really vulnerable to a lot of different energies that I felt insecure about, self-conscious, and I got more and more self-conscious about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe needed time, he explains, to \u201cfigure out about myself and what I wanted to do and find the right roles and the right directors that were true and honest.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tI see Dacre Montgomery now, at least I think I do. The six-year gap wasn\u2019t laziness or pickiness. On the contrary, it was survival.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wanted that authenticity in the projects,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not going to give all of myself to just anybody. I want to feel pure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he talks about his directorial debut \u2014 a four-person, single-location drama called \u201cThe Engagement Party\u201d \u2014 the same careful articulation gives way to something more urgent and lively. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s nothing else I wanted to do,\u201d he says about reading the script. \u201cThe only story I need to tell, this is the only thing I need to do with my life, and if it\u2019s the last thing I do with my life, I\u2019m happy. That\u2019s how I feel about everything: no in between. It\u2019s zero or 1000.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe all-or-nothing mentality isn\u2019t posturing. Montgomery describes keeping a list of things he\u2019s wanted to try in a movie since he was young, filling his first film with everything he\u2019s been storing up. \u201cA lot of people were like, \u2018What the fuck is going on? He\u2019s a lot,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cI am very intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut then, more seriously, he shares: \u201cI feel like I\u2019m in this phase where I want to push myself. I don\u2019t ever want to plateau. I want to try the next thing and try to push myself further creatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s aware of how this intensity might read.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s hard,\u201d he admits. \u201cPeople say, \u2018You have opportunities, why don\u2019t you take them? You\u2019re lucky. Shut up and be lucky.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe acknowledges all those perspectives without letting them change his course. \u201cI\u2019m not out here trying to do anything for anyone. Not to prove them wrong or prove them right. I\u2019m on my journey, doing it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u201cDead Man\u2019s Wire.\u201d Photo Credit Stefania Rosini\/Row K Entertainment<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStefania Rosini\/Row K Entertainment<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAs for \u201cStranger Things,\u201d now in its fifth season with four episodes left to air on Christmas Day and New Year\u2019s Eve, Montgomery is gracious but eager to shift the focus.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked if fans should expect him or anything in the final episodes, he demurs.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat excites him is what comes after: \u201cThe Duffer Brothers have all this other stuff they want to do, and that\u2019s the bit I\u2019m most excited for. The after, other IP, other stories, other things that for years they\u2019ve been talking about.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, he won\u2019t answer if he appears in the finale.<\/p>\n

\n\tNonetheless, he has a glass-half-full perspective about the industry\u2019s evolution, uninterested in nostalgia for how things used to be.<\/p>\n

\n\tNear the end of our conversation, Montgomery mentions calling three of Australia\u2019s greatest living directors before starting production on his directorial film. They all had one standard message for Montgomery: \u201cNo one\u2019s perfect. You will make mistakes, but own the mistakes. Show the actors, and show the crew that you are figuring it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was liberating, he says, to realize \u201cI can\u2019t control everything. I can\u2019t control every outcome. Maybe there\u2019s magic in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the closest he comes to articulating what ties everything together \u2014 Van Sant\u2019s instinctual casting, the years spent searching for authentic projects, the all-consuming dive into directing.<\/p>\n

\n\tMontgomery isn\u2019t trying to build a conventional career or become a movie star in any traditional sense. He\u2019s only trying to stay true to his internal definition of what matters, even when he can\u2019t fully explain it to anyone else, maybe not even himself.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d he says, searching for the right words, \u201cWhy did I lose my mind over this thing, if it\u2019s not really about being the project?\u201d He catches himself mid-tangent, then decides to push through anyway. \u201cI\u2019m going off track, but I guess the point is, I wanted that authenticity in the projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think he\u2019s off track at all. He\u2019s exactly where he means to be \u2014 somewhere between certainty and discovery, giving everything to the process and nothing to the outcome, following his gut like Van Sant taught him, like his grandmother understood, like he\u2019s been trying to do all along. The \u201cmagic,\u201d as he puts it, might be in not knowing exactly where you\u2019re going and just knowing that getting there, honestly, is the only thing that matters.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDead Man\u2019s Wire\u201d will be distributed by Row K Entertainment and opens in limited release on Jan. 9, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a particular way Dacre Montgomery answers questions. He\u2019s not evasive, but circuitous, like someone walking the perimeter of a truth before deciding how to enter it. He starts somewhere unexpected, drifts into tangents, then loops back with startling precision to land exactly where he meant to go all along. It\u2019s the conversational equivalent of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2207802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[345053,426233,305890],"class_list":["post-2207801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-dacre-montgomery","tag-dead-manu2019s-wire","tag-stranger-things"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Dacre-Montgomery-on-Dead-Mans-Wire-and-Stranger-Things.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2207803,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207801\/revisions\/2207803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2207802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}