This post contains mild spoilers for Stranger Things 3.

Priah Ferguson is going places. The 12-year-old Stranger Things actor was a delightfully snarky addition to the show’s sophomore season, and this year finds her in an even bigger role, helping her brother and his friends thwart yet another evil plan to unleash the Upside Down upon Hawkins, Indiana. It can be hard to stand out in an ensemble show like Stranger Things, but Ferguson is a consistently welcome presence. She plays Erica with both intelligence and grit; yes, this pint-size adventurer can wisecrack like an older kid, but her petulance is a quick reminder of how old she actually is. And while this season might be a little uneven, Ferguson becomes a reliable source of comic relief—especially toward its latter half.

There’s also the pitch-perfect petulance with which she shouts, too many times to count, one memorable epithet: “Nerds!!!”

Unlike her character, however, Ferguson is a little more empathetic when asked how she personally would describe what it means to be a nerd.

“I think everybody has a little nerdiness in them,” Ferguson said in a recent interview. (Even Erica eventually learns that she’s technically a nerd as well, thanks to an efficient reality check from Gaten Matarazzo’s Dustin: “My Little Pony is nerdy.”) “I kind of have a little nerdiness when it comes to history,” Ferguson said. “I wouldn’t define one group of people as a nerd; everybody is a nerd.”

Although Ferguson is more generous than Erica when it comes to nerds, she and her character share several qualities—including an adoration for ice cream. This season, after spending days torturing ice cream scoopers Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin (Maya Hawke) at their summer job, Erica gets the chance to join in on the big kids’ paranormal fun when the group realizes it needs a tiny body to crawl through an air vent. Erica’s price? Free ice cream, “for. Life.” Ferguson guessed she, too, could be bought for a lifetime supply of the good stuff—though she clarified that her taste in frozen treats is a bit different from Erica’s. “I don’t like ice cream that’s too sweet,” she explained. “I kind of like grandma ice cream.... Homemade ice cream, and butter pecan and salted caramel.”

Other qualities Ferguson said she and her character share: a skill for planning and organization, as well as leadership. Can you tell she’s an older sister? “Jada, my little sister, she’s always keeping me in check,” Ferguson said. So in that way, “Erica’s like any average little sister.” (Ferguson also confirmed her sister does watch Stranger Things, and that she’s been “super supportive” of her involvement.)

Ferguson’s craziest scene this season? Navigating that air vent and kicking open the grate on the other side—all while wearing a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads. “That was cool, but it was a little sweaty too, so I was hot,” Ferguson said. “With the vent scene, it was cool seeing how it all came together. Like the detail they put in that, it was just so cool, and it was kind of like my first little action scene.... I just had a ball on set. It was just so much fun.” Another highlight was pretending to be trapped in an elevator with Keery, Hawke, and Matarazzo. “I was screaming so loud I probably lost my voice after it, but I was also thinking about a scary moment in my life,” Ferguson said. “And at times, I don’t like elevators because I feel like I’ll get stuck in them. So I’ll just use all of that to just put it into the work.”