Linnea Berthelsen Reveals Kali's "Stranger Things 5" Return and Bold Haircut: 'I Started from Scratch'

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Linnea Berthelsen on Kali's Return to "Stranger Things" and the Emotional Journey

Linnea Berthelsen, the Danish actress who portrayed Kali in "Stranger Things," has shared her thoughts on the character’s return for the final season. The actress discussed how she approached her role in a new light, given the significant changes in Kali’s story.

Key Points

• Linnea Berthelsen breaks down Kali's surprise return on Stranger Things season 5.
• The actress shaved her head on camera for episode 5: "It was my first day of principal photography. We had to do it in one take."
• Berthelsen "started from scratch with the character, given the circumstances of what she's going through."

A New Beginning for Kali

Berthelsen did not know what the future held for Kali during the making of Stranger Things season 2. She filmed appearances in two episodes of the Netflix series as Eleven's "sister" with the ability to warp peoples' perception of reality. She remembers discussing certain things with series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, but even they didn't know what the full plan was back then. The show was only just becoming the global phenom that it is today.

"We've talked about bringing her back before, but there was not a narrative or thematic reason to bring her back," Matt tells Entertainment Weekly. "She'd served her purpose in season 2, but it still felt like this loose end where Eleven [Millie Bobby Brown] just left her there. What happened to her?"

Berthelsen moved on to other acting projects — most notably Alex Garlands' sci-fi miniseries Devs with Nick Offerman and House of the Dragon's Sonoya Mizuno — but she kept in touch with the Duffers since season 2. Then, three years ago, the brothers emailed her, asking to set up a phone call.

"It could have been just to catch up," Berthelsen says. "They were very supportive and saw the other things that I've done over the years." It wasn't. The duo finally cracked the code for Kali's return, beginning with a dramatic episode 4 cliffhanger that bookended season 5's Volume 1 drop over Thanksgiving week.

"I was about to do something else when they called me three years ago to do [season 5]," the actress, now 32, continues. "So I think I was never attached mentally to come back and do anything, but it's just very lovely to see they had something that they wanted to do with the character — and then we took it from there."

The Hair Shave Scene

Berthelsen sits down with EW over Zoom from the U.K. to talk about the character's role ahead of season 5's Volume 2 drop on Christmas Day, consisting of episodes 5-7 (streaming now on Netflix). That initial call with the Duffers was particularly informative. They talked through how Kali would become a lab rat once again, this time for Dr. Kay; they talked about Linda Hamilton's casting and all the Terminator 2: Judgement Day references on the show, which she found "quite daunting."

They also talked about the hair scene. After Eleven and Hopper extract Kali out of Dr. Kay's lab, they take refuge in a church, where the sister known as 8 chronicles how the military killed her friends and took her captive. One flashback sees them shaving off Kali's hair, which Berthelsen filmed practically, on camera.

"I think for logistics reasons, it's my first take on the whole season. It was my first day of principal photography," Berthelsen recalls. "We had to do it in one take. I did it with [episode 5 director] Frank Darabont. I did not do it with Matt and Ross, so I also had to do it with somebody who I didn't know. I love [Darabont's] work. I love working with him, but there was all of these logistics and requests about, 'Is this something you would like to come and do?'"

The hair shave scene, for Berthelsen, became symbolic of a rebellious character's loss of control. "It's taking her back to captivity, basically," she says, "to everything that she fears the most. That's something that I didn't even touch for season 2. So very different."

A Different Kali

To Berthelsen's point, Kali is not the same figure we met in season 2, that edgy teen launching her own rebellion against those that experimented on her. Episode 5 of the final season, "Shock Jock," further reveals Dr. Kay took her blood and injected it into pregnant women (also held captive) in the hopes of breeding more weapons (i.e. psychic children). It's why she goes to Eleven with the warning that all this won't end by killing Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). They will forever be hunted by Dr. Kay or whatever Brenner replacement comes in next.

Berthelsen described the season 5 story for her character as "very vulnerable and daunting."

"I started from scratch with the character, given the circumstances of what she's going through," she explains. "It's a gear shift. It's a whole different person. What happens to people when they go through something that's quite traumatic and different, you can change. So I think I allowed myself to say, 'Season 2, that persona, whatever happened is there, but I'm gonna start all over and do the prep from the beginning see what's gonna come out naturally.' What stayed with the character was that guardedness, that way of seeing the world, the mistrust."

Emotional Reconnection

Coming back to work on Stranger Things for season 5 was such a different experience for many reasons. On season 2, Berthelsen was cast for a specific bottle episode, "The Lost Sister," whereas now she's a part of the larger fabric of the final season story.

Stranger Things was also not as big as it is today. For season 5, the show took over the entire studio space in Atlanta, including the backlot, whereas season 2 had a smaller section.

The other crucial difference is who the stars are now as people. Berthelsen was 23 when the Duffers cast her as Kali in October 2016. Brown, now 21, became a mother during that time off camera, with cast mate Noah Schnapp serving as the infant's godfather. Much, Berthelsen recognizes, has changed when they reunited for the Kali and Eleven scenes.

"I get really emotional seeing her as the character," Berthelsen says, "but also there's something there, like a connection. There's something that feels so true, and I think that's why maybe we can get that out of the scene. "We're very present with each other. We got to do some pretty intense scenes, which is very rare that you get that. Sometimes you need to work a bit to get to know each other. It was very emotional seeing it, but also seeing what she did with the character over the years, which I don't think is easy by any means to develop a character over so many seasons. That's another thing that's quite brilliant to see."

With Volume 2 now out in the world, we are full-on hurdling towards the series finale. The 2-hour, 8-minute episode will simultaneously debut in select theaters and on Netflix Dec. 31, beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Berthelsen remembers sitting at the table read for this chapter, titled "The Rightside Up."

"This has been said before, but it's just so emotional. I haven't read that specific episode without crying by the end," she says. "It was really brilliantly done, the way they wrote it."