As I’m sure you know, Finn Wolfhard got his big break in Netflix’s Stranger Things back in 2016, becoming an overnight success thanks to his role as Mike Wheeler.
When Stranger Things started, Finn was only 13, and now, ahead of its final season later this year, the 22-year-old has looked back on the one thing he would’ve changed about his fast rise to fame.
“I don’t think I’d ever go back and do something over, but maybe I would go back to when the show first came out and blew up, and I would directly put myself into therapy,” he told People last week. “But it was so crazy and overnight that there was not really any time to think about that.”
As you may know, Finn has talked in the past about struggling with panic attacks while working on the show as a teen, previously saying during a 2023 interview with GQ that he didn’t talk openly about what he was experiencing “because [he] just was having this crazy whirlwind career, so there was no time, or at least we didn’t feel [there was].”
And while he seems pretty well adjusted today, there are vast numbers of sad stories about child stars whose fame at a young age led them to struggle in many ways later in life. In light of this, fans have speculated why therapy for young actors isn’t fully mandatory yet.
In response to Finn’s comments about therapy, one X user responded: “honestly it should be a requirement for child actors to go to therapy, especially if they land a role in a popular franchise. children don’t think about that stuff, it’s on the adults to help them.”
Someone suggested that therapy should’ve been included in the kids’ Netflix contracts when they signed on for the show as minors, while another user pointed out more broadly that agents who represent child actors should advocate for more mental health support.
