“Stranger Things”' Charlie Heaton Shares Rare Comment About Working with Longtime Girlfriend Natalia Dyer

Charlie Heaton made a rare comment about his relationship with girlfriend and Stranger Things costar Natalia Dyer.

Heaton, 31, and Dyer, 30, first met while auditioning for the hit Netflix series, and they have now been a public couple since 2017. Opening up about Dyer in a Wonderland magazine cover story published Tuesday, Nov. 25, Heaton says working with her is “precious."

“It’s been a gift to work with my best friend,” he tells Wonderland. “To be able to have a shared experience with your partner about the anxiety when you don’t get a job – I know what that feels like, she knows what that feels like.”

“You can be there to talk about it, or when you have a s--- day at work, or come away from a scene and you didn’t think it worked,” adds Heaton. “To be able to both understand each other on that level is great.”

The actor also commented on Stranger Things fans’ reactions to the couple over the years, some of which are more extreme than others, stating, “It’s nice, I guess?”

He also added to Wonderland that though he and Dyer did not expect their off-screen romance to generate such fanfare, he recognizes that it “heightens” viewers’ investment in the on-screen relationship between their characters, Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler.

Heaton also pulled back the curtain a bit on what he and Dyer do outside of the Stranger Things set. The couple enjoys performing two-hand plays together, either at home or somewhere public like a local park, for each other, he said.

He told Wonderland, “I know it sounds super nerdy,” with a laugh, before adding, “I’m making myself sound way more cultured than I am.” 

The actor also shared a sneak peek into his headspace as he filmed Stranger Things’ sixth and final season.

“There are some scenes in this finale, especially towards the end, where it might be the most honest work I’ve ever had the opportunity to do,” Heaton told the magazine. “I was just looking at [each cast member] being like, I love you. You are here in this one moment. I don’t think I’ll ever have that experience again.”

Heaton and Dyer first appeared as love interests Jonathan and Nancy in season 1 of the series, which premiered in July 2016. Speculation that the two actors were a couple in real life ignited, and gained more traction in 2017 when they were spotted together at the Los Angeles International Airport after attending the Golden Globes that year.

After almost a year of dating rumors, the stars made things red carpet official, stepping out together for the first time at the 2017 Fashion Awards in London.

Over the years, but especially in the very beginning, the pair has kept much of their relationship out of the spotlight — a decision Heaton later reflected on in a 2020 interview with GQ.

“We didn't really know what the relationship was,” he told the outlet at the time, adding that “the caginess, anyway, might have been unnecessary."

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Stranger Things season 5 premieres with volume 1 on Nov. 26, volume 2 on Dec. 25, and the finale on Dec. 31.