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After starring on one of the world’s most successful shows for nearly a decade, Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo is ready for a fresh challenge — and that starts with his new stoner comedy, Pizza Movie.

“I would love to jump into something starkly different [after Stranger Things], but there is a tug of war there,” Matarazzo, 23, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his new film. “Because when you play a part for so long, it’s very easy for people who are making new projects that you will go out for, for them to say, ‘I see what you’ve done, so I know that your capabilities fall into in line with an idea that I have.’”

He continued, “So I don’t blame anybody for going into audition rooms and saying, ‘Oh, this is very similar to [your character] Dustin or to Stranger Things. That’s a very reasonable, understandable segue. It’s [just] not something that I’m necessarily very interested in.”

Matarazzo, who portrayed ‘80s teen science whiz Dustin Henderson on the Netflix hit for five seasons over 10 years, is also well aware of how “rare” it is to even be in a position to push back on typecasting.

“It’s such a competitive industry,” he explained, “I’m in a very privileged, very lucky situation where after working on something as successful as Stranger Things, I can say what I’m interested in doing. I can make decisions based on what feels good for me. I’m very lucky to be in that situation.”

That push-and-pull is exactly what led him to Pizza Movie. The off-beat buddy comedy, written and directed by SNL alums Noah Kocher and Brian McElhaney, follows two college roommates who accidentally take a hallucinogenic drug — without food — and spend the rest of the film desperately trying to track down their pizza.

Still, the film isn’t a complete departure from his Stranger Things days. Matarazzo may have aged out of high school — his character, Jack, is a college freshman with an RA from hell (played by a hilarious Jack Martin) — but he’s still playing in a familiar lane: the outsider. Like Dustin, Jack spends much of the movie being chased, ridiculed and relentlessly bullied.

“I’ve always loved it,” Matarazzo admits of playing someone outside the “in” crowd. “I think, especially in comedies, something that makes it super funny and engaging is someone’s desperation not to be [an outsider]. … and [Jack’s] entire existence is his public perception, which is in the s***er. And it is really, really fun to approach that.”

It’s also something Matarazzo connects to on a personal level. As an actor, caring about what other people think can often be part of the job.

“My job is very much hindering on public perception,” he confessed to Us. “It is inherently like, ‘Oh my God, I hope people like what I do or watch what I do.’ And it’s a toxic mindset, but it’s really fun for a character to be based solely around that toxicity, and really fun to make light of it.”

Another lane Matarazzo knows well? The art of the buddy comedy. After becoming one half of a fan-favorite duo with Joe Keery on Stranger Things, he leans into that same dynamic opposite Sean Giambrone — this time as two best friends who might actually be a little too close.

Matarazzo has an uncanny ability to make on-screen friendships feel real, but he insists that ability comes down to who he’s sharing the screen with.

“It’s easy when you work with somebody like Sean, and it’s easy when you work with somebody like Joe as well, where they’re both so easy to become very close to,” he explained. “They’re both incredibly charming, incredibly kind, very talented, and it’s hard not to get close to them as actors and as people. That makes my job a little easier when the goal is to be their friend.”

For Matarazzo, what makes Pizza Movie stand out is its slightly more evolved take on male friendship. Instead of building toward emotional vulnerability, the characters start there and unravel.

“They’ve already [done] the, ‘Hey buddy, I love you.’ Hugs. They’re not really concerned about expressing themselves in that way. And so then we can kind of kick off from there and let the clash that they have be a little bit more nuanced,” Matarazzo said, noting that much of the tension comes from the realization that the twosome are a little too “codependent.”

“I think starting there is different and really fun and easy to do,” he said before praising Gambrione even further. “[Everyone on this movie] will talk about how much of a clear, just immediate MVP of the room Sean is. He is an absolute delight.”

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Even as he explores new territory, Matarazzo isn’t under any illusion that he’s fully escaping the role that made him famous — and that’s OK.

“Maybe now that I’ve done [a college movie], people will have me go in for high schoolers less, but I don’t think that that’s true,” he said with a laugh. “I feel as though I will probably be [playing] high schoolers for a very long time. As the stereotype goes, it’s 30-year-old teenagers working in movies. And hey, as much as it annoys me, and did annoy me growing up, I’m gonna do it if they ask me to. It was fun for sure.”

Pizza Movie is now streaming on Hulu.