Stranger Things star Maya Hawke and Get Out star Betty Gabriel talk life after a breakout role
Human Capital stars Maya Hawke and Betty Gabriel both know what it feels like to have that one big role that thrusts them into the spotlight.
Hawke, who is currently having a huge year starring in both Stranger Things and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, explained to the EW and PEOPLE video suite at the Toronto International Film Festival how the exposure is affecting her career by saying, “I have just tried to follow joy, like the thing that makes me the most happy is probably the thing that I should be doing.”
“I’ve just tried to carry that ideology through the event of Stranger Things happening in my life and focus on the things about Stranger Things that I love like being in it, and my other actors, and how smart the Duffer Brothers are, and kind of ignore the rest of the hullabaloo that comes along with it,” the actress added.
Meanwhile, after a small role in Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out turned into a viral moment and Oscar campaign for Gabriel, she notes, “It shook my life up completely, all the attention post-Get Out. It definitely made me think perhaps overthink all the projects I was going to do afterwards.” While the attention was great, Gabriel says “I definitely wanted to steer clear from being pigeonholed in the genre world, in the horror world.”
Her role in Human Capital, a film about two families colliding after their children have an ill-fated relationship, gave her something different than what audiences knew her for. “I don’t die in the end, and I’m not toting a gun around so it’s actually really exciting to play this character who actually is pregnant, she dons the pregnant belly, and she’s giving life and not taking life so it’s been wonderful and a luxury to sort of say ok well now I have a choice to go this way, that way, and not just take anything that comes along.”
Human Capital premieres at TIFF on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
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