David Harbour: Season 1 of ‘Stranger Things’ Was ‘The Most Miserable Time in My Life’

By Ellis Clopton

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – David Harbour may portray the emotionally hardened and nigh-invulnerable Sheriff Hopper on “Stranger Things,” but in a recent segment on Variety’s “Actors on Actors,” presented by Shutterstock, Harbour opened up about the pain he went through during shooting with “Twin Peaks” star Kyle MacLachlan.

“The first season was the most miserable time in my life,” Harbour said. “It was sort of the greatest time in my life, too, but I just wanted to work on it so hard.”

He told MacLachlan that, for much of the first season, he pushed himself too hard, knowing he had a “shot at the pro ball,” so much so that he was depressed whenever he wasn’t working on the show.

“We went down to Atlanta to shoot it, and I had very little interaction with anyone,” Harbour said. “I just would sit in my house, and be very depressed. I would rarely go out. I started to learn the ukulele a little bit, so I’d play weird songs on the ukulele and just sit.”

“” is currently available for streaming on Netflix, and has been renewed for a third season.

The Emmy Award-winning “” series will air in two episodes on PBS SoCal KOCE, the first on Tuesday, June 19 at 7 p.m. and the second on Thursday, June 21 at 7 p.m. Both episodes will stream on pbssocal.org following their premieres.

Watch the full interview below.