Suzie on 'Stranger Things' Actress: Real "Super Fan" of 'Neverending Story'
Pizzolo says to "keep the memes coming."
by Eric FranciscoIt’s the unexpected hit of the summer: The theme song to the 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story is having a moment in 2019, thanks to the latest season of Stranger Things.
While series star, 16 year-old Gaten Matarazzo, revealed in an interview that hadn’t never saw The NeverEnding Story before the show, his co-star, 16-year-old Broadway alum Gabriella Pizzolo, is a “super fan” of the ‘80s film.
“The friends I used to hang out with, we used to watch it every Friday in third grade,” Pizzolo tells Inverse. “It was one of my favorites. Yeah, I was a super fan.”
In the season finale of Stranger Things, a rendition of “The NeverEnding Story” is performed by Matarazzo (as “Dustin”) and Pizzolo, Dustin’s “Suzie-pooh,” his new girlfriend from science camp. When Dustin needs the equation for Planck’s constant, Suzie agrees to give it to him only after he sings to her.
“Not now,” Dustin urges, to which Suzie replies, “Yes, now.”
Since the episode premiered, the scene has won over Stranger Things fans who have honored the scene with memes and, yes, a #NeverEndingStoryChallenge. Among the most successful participants have been late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon who paid tribute to the scene.
Pizzolo says to keep the memes flowing.
“I love the memes. Keep ‘em coming,” she says. “And in regards to the Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon, I thought it was hilarious. I’m just sad they didn’t call me.”
It’s fine, Pizzolo is too busy to keep singing “The Neverending Story” anyway.
On the day Inverse met with the new star of Stranger Things (though she doesn’t know if she’ll return in Season 4), Pizzolo surprised a group from Girls Who Code at the first “Camp Know Where,” a series of summer STEM workshops sponsored by Microsoft and Netflix.
“Camp Know Where is where Suzie and Dustin meet in the show. It’s a science camp,” explains Pizzolo. “Today and throughout the summer, students can come learn about STEM and how we use it in our lives, in moviemaking, and coding our own video games.”
While known for her appearances on the stage and screen, Pizzolo has a secret passion for technology. She tells Inverse she “loves video games” and that she built some actual robots in middle school.
“I took tech classes in school. I would build robots in middle school and it was so fun. We built these bridges in CAD [computer-aided design], we got to test building infrastructure. That’s one of my favorite things.”
On July 18, 'Stranger Things' star Gabriella Pizzolo helped kick off Microsoft's "Camp Know Where" in New York City, a series of summer STEM workshops at Microsoft Stores throughout the country.
Pizzolo admits that Suzie “has a much broader horizon of what she can do, she’s pretty much a genius.” So what does Pizzolo think Suzie is doing now, in 2019? “Today, she’s probably in her ‘40s, I imagine her coding and working for NASA. She’s into enhancing the Earth so we can connect to places we don’t know about. Maybe even the Upside Down.”
Stranger Things Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.
