Stranger Things Star Gaten Matarazzo Reflects on Early Audition Rejections That Cited His Condition

Gaten Matarazzo is best known for playing Dustin Henderson on Stranger Things, a role he first began back in 2016 when he was 13-years-old. Matarazzo’s cleidocranial dysplasia was written onto the show and the now 19-year-old actor has been very open about his CCD, “a skeletal disorder characterized by open fontanelles (soft spot), small or absent clavicles (collarbones), and multiple dental abnormalities.” In 2020, the actor underwent his fourth surgery for CCD, which he called a “complete success.” In honor of the upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things, Matarazzo recently spoke with Michael Rosenbaum on his Inside You podcast about the history of Stranger Things and some on-set shenanigans. During the conversation, Matarazzo also opened up about his cleidocranial dysplasia and how it stopped him from getting roles.

“I was auditioning for a bunch of stuff, a lot of commercials, a lot of theater, not a lot of TV and movie stuff, though, it wasn’t what I was going for, I didn’t have the look for it. I still had a lot of problems with my teeth, had a lisp, it was an awkward stage for me at the time, and TV and film was not about… I didn’t run away from it, I went head first because I was told by my parents that that was always going to be a possibility at that point in my life. Before I had grown up, they didn’t know how severely my condition was going to affect me. I didn’t know if I was going to have severe issues with my back or with my spine, with my knees, if it was going to be a real challenge for me and at that time they really prepared me for the worst. They weren’t sure how bad it was going to affect me. Up to that point, it looked like it might have been getting ready to hit me like a truck, so they were just always prepared me for that,”  Matarazzo shared.

“I guess this is something that I didn’t realize was messed up until like now. At the time I was like, ‘I like that they’re being honest, I like that they’re treating me like an adult,’ but at the time, it was not something that a seven-year-old should be hearing all the time, but I remember casting directors would constantly tell me like, ‘Oh kid we love you, but yeah, just get those teeth in.’ I expressed to them I was also only seven, so a bunch of seven-year-olds already have their teeth in, so I guess they assumed that it might have just been like a regular missing teeth situation. I always heard, ‘Get those teeth in,’ I’d explain the condition and then they tell me, ‘Well you’re not gonna have much luck in this industry then.’”

He continued, “I don’t think I ever told my manager, my mom about this stuff because I thought that was commonplace… Maybe it was something I suppressed, but honestly, it was something I was so used to hearing and dealing with by myself, I heard it so much I knew I was so aware of it to a point in which I was maybe numb to the idea of being offended by it. I think it’s helped me more than it hasn’t unless like later down the road, I’m going to have some weird anxiety awakening like, ‘Crap I’ve been suppressing that.’” 

Stranger Things‘ fourth season is premiering on Netflix on May 27th.