Australian actor Dacre Montgomery has spoken about retreating from stardom after Netflix's Stranger Things made him an overnight sensation, and why a new possession drama finally lured him back. Montgomery, now 30, said losing his anonymity 'scared the shit out of me' and prompted him to step back from acting for four years, during which he turned down every role except a season-four cameo and a small part in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis.
Speaking in Sydney ahead of the release of Went Up the Hill, Montgomery said the period of withdrawal was a deliberate recalibration. 'I needed to stop and recalibrate,' he said. 'I also knew that I wanted more and I had more to give.' His Hollywood agent at the time eventually dropped him, but he continued to experiment with creative projects, including a poetry podcast and book titled DKMH, and directed several high-concept short films.
Went Up the Hill, written and directed by Samuel van Grinsven, is set in New Zealand's Southern Alps and co-stars Vicky Krieps. Montgomery plays Jack, a young queer man who attends the funeral of his estranged abusive mother and meets her wife, Jill, for the first time. As Elizabeth's spirit possesses each of their bodies, the pair confront the trauma of her abuse. Montgomery said he was drawn to the challenge of a 'three-hander told by two people' and the script's exploration of inherited trauma, which felt personal.
'My mum had really bad postnatal depression when I was born,' he said. 'I think a lot of my anxieties come from that. So it feels a part of me, in a weird way. And then, in some ways, my anxiety is the fire that fuels my ambition or my work ethic.' Van Grinsven said Montgomery was cast for his 'dangerous' on-screen presence and his underlying sensitivity.
Montgomery's return to prominence also includes a remake of the 1970s horror film Faces of Death, alongside Barbie Ferreira and Charli xcx, and Gus van Sant's true-crime thriller Dead Man's Wire about a 1977 kidnapping, which premiered at Venice to glowing reviews. His earlier career saw him lead the 2017 Power Rangers reboot before landing the role of Billy Hargrove in Stranger Things, which brought him global fame and a vast social media following.
