I always just like to improvise, and that goes for my audition tapes as well. I kind of play around with it, have fun with it. Obviously in the audition tape, you can see that I'm holding my iPhone because I'm playing music as I'm going, and it's kind of a bit like a theater piece for me sometimes. I'll just speak and dance and go crazy and, you know, turn the music up as the audition tape goes on, and just leave the camera rolling.

What did the Duffer brothers say about the audition tape?

[laughs] I love it because they're so casual. I sent off the tape at 11 o'clock that night, Australian time. And then in the morning we had a response saying, the Duffers want to Skype you on Sunday. They were kind of like, "Hey man. So we saw your tape, and, you know, it caused a bit of a stir at Netflix." Apparently it was played in the big board meeting.

So tell me about your choice to use Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" and Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen" in the tape.

So the season takes place in Hawkins in 1984 in October, so if I was going to be using any music in this thing, it couldn't have come out after that time. I wanted to not just go, Okay, it's the '80s, and just pick two big tracks from the '80s. It had to be before October of 1984, so I went and looked up the songs. ["Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Come on Eileen" both came out in 1982.]

"I was thinking: Either I'm never going to work again, or somebody somewhere is going to see one thing in me, and they'll give me a chance."

I was at the premiere [of Stranger Things 2, in L.A.], five or six days ago, and the director of photography Tim Ives and the costume designer Kim Wilcox are working on a film together in Vancouver. They had close friends that are daughters or something like that to Duran Duran, and Duran Duran found out about this tape. And they're sending me a mystery present to my house in Perth! It's amazing!

No way. What do you think it is?

I have no idea. I'm wondering. It might just be a G-string. From their era. A used G-string. As a joke.

I have to ask. What inspired the G-string?

I did a play in high school, and that's the only reason I had this nude-colored G-string [laughs]. I think Billy's kind of unpredictable nature, it's not like me. It's obviously not like me to get in a G-string and do that, so I was like, what wouldn't Dacre do? And when I heard the music, I was like, well, whatever. YOLO [laughs]. Because I think that's Billy in every way. I get so self-conscious, so it was a nice reprieve from that, to be able to do that at home, during the day, while none of my family was home, and just go for it, to just have that moment of freedom, and be able to show them that I can have that uninhibited freedom. And I was like, Okay, what better way to do that than to oil myself up, put on a G-string, and... yeah.

Did you oil yourself up?

Yes, there might have been a bit of oiling that went on.

Did your parents see the tape?

[sheepishly] Yep. They saw it... Look, it was an interesting evening, but I think all was rectified when I got the call the next morning.

I remember sending it to my representatives in the States, and they forwarded it on to Netflix and the casting director, and I was thinking: Either I'm never going to work again, or somebody somewhere is going to see one thing in me, and they'll give me a chance.

But I'm glad it was done, and I stick by it. Like aside from the G-string, aside from the fun kind of gimmick that that is, I do care about it, and that's the way that audition tape was constructed. And I have done that for other projects since.

So for auditions going forward, this is a model you'll be emulating?

So I got an opportunity to audition for Justin Kurzel's next movie, which is set in Australia. So I drew the main [film] character's family tree and a map of the place where he comes from all over my arms and my chest, just all over my body with permanent marker. Justin could have very easily said, this is ridiculous, because it's so ludicrous. I come in like I'm war-painted up for the next battle, in an audition, in the middle of Sydney, on like a Tuesday morning. But I'm very happy to announce that I'm going to be a part of that project. So I'm not going to be changing my tactic.

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