Child actors need therapy: Noah Schnapp

Los Angeles: Noah Schnapp, who rose to fame with his role of Will Byers in Netflix’s sci-fi series ‘Stranger Things’, believes therapy should be mandatory for child actors.

The actor, 21, shot to global fame when he was just 11 with the first season of ‘Stranger Things’ in 2016 and in an interview, he admitted how he initially thought he didn’t need therapy as a ‘happy-go-lucky kid’.

He has now done therapy and believes it should be made available to children working in the sphere of entertainment. “It’s hard to grow up in the public eye. You don’t know yourself; you haven’t figured anything out and now you’re expected to know everything and have all the answers,” he told ‘USA Today’.

He added, “I was constantly saying the wrong things or being embarrassed by not taking certain things seriously that I should’ve and then that lives on forever. People grow and learn, and to do that publicly is not easy.”

‘Stranger Things’ will air its series finale on December 31 after a five-season run. “Through the years, it becomes like, ‘No, this is an abnormal life and you need some type of support system outside of your parents’,” said Schnapp.

He added, “Growing up, I never understood why people were depressed or turned to drugs or had eating disorders. As you get older, you understand how the pressures of Hollywood can create that. I always tell my parents, ‘I could never live in LA. I think I would get lost’.”