Living with your best friend sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, Stranger Things stars Gaten Matarazzo and Finn Wolfhard found out the hard way that even the closest friendships can get messy—literally.
The 23-year-old actor recently sat down with Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his podcast Dinner’s on Me and didn’t hold back when describing what it was like sharing a place with his longtime co-star. Turns out, their Atlanta apartment during the filming of Stranger Things‘ fifth and final season became something of a disaster zone.
Matarazzo said that living together felt like having a college experience, but admitted that after about three months, he would look around and think the place was disgusting. The two actors, who’ve been working together since they were kids, spent roughly a year as roommates while shooting the Netflix series.
So who was the messier one? According to Matarazzo, they were both equally guilty. He explained that they matched each other’s energy and got along so well that they didn’t really hold each other to any standard. That close bond actually became the root of their cleaning problems.
“I would look around like three months after we lived together and like, this place is disgusting. What are we doing?”
The reality check came when other cast members suggested meeting at their place. “The wake up call came when like we would plan to go out and someone would be like, ‘All right, we’ll just meet you at yours.’ And both of us would be like, ‘No, do not come 10 feet to our home.’”
What exactly made their place so disgusting? Matarazzo detailed how clothes would clutter everywhere, laundry would pile up, and dishes would stack higher and higher. They kept telling themselves they’d get to it later, but “later” kept getting pushed back. The dishes were particularly tough, according to the actor.
The good news? These two best friends didn’t let dirty dishes ruin their decade-long friendship. They actually got better at keeping things tidy toward the end of their roommate stint. Matarazzo acknowledged the risk of living with a close friend, noting that sharing space can sometimes ruin relationships and dynamics. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case for him and Finn Wolfhard.
The experience clearly didn’t damage their bond. The entire Stranger Things cast, including Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, and Caleb McLaughlin, still keeps in touch through their group chat and tries to hang out whenever possible. As they wrap up nearly a decade of growing up together on one of Netflix’s biggest shows, these friendships have proven they can survive anything—even a year of being disgusting roommates in Atlanta.