Actor David Harbour recently spoke with Insider where he revealed that he's ready to leave television behind for good and ascend to the heights of being a film star.
"I think about George Clooney leaving 'ER. Now we just see him as George Clooney," Harbour told Insider in an interview to promote his upcoming video game pic, Grand Turismo. "But there was a time when it was, 'The guy from 'ER' is doing a movie with Nicole Kidman.'"
The actor has already carved out a place in the film industry, having played Red Guardian in Black Widow, the title hero in a Hellboy revival (which is being reinvented yet again), and an R-rated Santa Claus in Violent Night.
However, Harbour addressed his wish to demonstrate greater variety and range than what he's shown thus far, as he and the interviewer compared his aspirations to the late-career ascension of Gene Hackman.
"I'm trying to navigate some of that, and it's tricky because you don't want to s#*t on the people that love you for this thing that you did that you also love," said Harbour on the fans who only know him for his role as Hopper in Stranger Things.
"But at the same time, you kind of want to leave the nest. I got more in me. I got different stuff in me, and I want you guys to see that. I don't want people yelling 'Hopper' on the street every five minutes the rest of my life."
Harbour reiterated that he definitely loves Stranger Things and is grateful for the role of Hopper, but he also wants to be a leading man, and he plans to use his late-career push to make that happen.
He'll soon be contractually free to make that push as the Duffer Brothers previously confirmed that season 5 of Stranger Things will be the last.
However, the current tandem WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have most Stranger Things fans expecting the show to drop in late-2025, after pre-strike intel had season 5 possibly being released in early-2025.