Everyone knows Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, right? They're the famous actor and director who've contributed seminal work throughout the history of cinema. Despite that, maybe not everyone has always been aware of the pair. Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp, who plays the haunted Will Byers, recently admitted that he had no idea who the iconic Oscar winners were when he worked with them on the set of a movie in 2015 and received a special shoutout.
Noah Schnapp will turn 20 this October but, recently, he's been thinking about a different birthday from almost 10 years ago. At the time, he was filming his first movie, Bridge of Spies, just before he started on Stranger Things. After wrapping a scene, Schnapp walked out of the house the cast and crew were filming inside and over to the famed Jaws director, who gave him props on the scene they had just completed. The Toy Story actor then stepped aside to reveal a lit birthday cake, and the entire cast and crew started singing. Schnapp posted the throwback video on his Instagram with this caption:
Laughing at this throwback to when Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks wished me happy 10th birthday on my first movie and I had no clue who they were.
There's so much to unpack here. First of all, can you imagine Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg singing you happy birthday?! The director of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind himself. And, that being said, imagine at 10 years old not knowing who they were -- on the set of their movie! It’s honestly baffling, and I don’t know if I have more respect for Noah Schnapp for admitting that or if I’m a little embarrassed for him. (Maybe a bit of both.) Had he never seen any of Hanks' best movies or any of Spielberg's greatest flicks? Well, I suppose in fairness, he was only a child at the time and may have been too young for Jurassic Park or Cast Away.
Anyways, the video is really sweet, and the young Abe actor can be seen smiling ear to ear. You can watch the entire heartwarming clip below:
The star is no stranger to sharing things online. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that pun.) He’s shared throwbacks for his birthday in the past, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Schnapp also came out in a TikTok video sometime after it was confirmed that his ST character was gay. Thankfully, fans were really supportive, flooding his comments with kind words.
Of course, these days, Noah Schnapp has gained a significant amount of notoriety in his own right, thanks to his role on one of the best Netflix shows. As of this writing, he has 31.1 million followers on TikTok and 22.6 million on Instagram. He is constantly sharing his life on social media, including the moment when he was accepted to UPenn. Lucky for us fans, his social media account has more recently been flooded with behind-the-scenes tidbits from Stranger Things 5, as Schnapp prepares to wrap the final season alongside his co-stars.
That aside, I wonder if we will get a throwback birthday post from the Stranger Things set from Noah Schnapp in another 10 years. Only time will tell but, right now, I'm just glad that he's familiar with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. In the meantime, know that you can look forward to the final season of the aforementioned show dropping in 2025. Until then, you can rewatch the first four seasons to your heart’s content with a Netflix subscription.
