Dacre Montgomery is charting a new path for himself after the whirlwind fame of Stranger Things. The actor, best known for playing Billy Hargrove in the hit Netflix series, admits that the global spotlight pushed him toward projects he never initially set out to pursue.

“I grew up really wanting to work with all tour directors on arthouse films and really explore how far I can push myself in terms of character development and really, really fall in love with stories,” Montgomery told People. “And when Stranger Things came out, I felt like … I was really being pushed in a commercial direction.”

That realisation came after his character’s shocking death in Season 3 back in 2019. The success of the series left him at a crossroads. “I think with Stranger Things, as with any big show on Netflix, it’s kind of like you lose your anonymity overnight. It was amazing and overwhelming and a combination of many things, and I felt really lucky and really fortunate to have that opportunity,” he reflected.

But the overnight fame led him to pause and reassess. “That sort of stuff takes time to kind of reverse engineer a career that’s going one way into a different direction. It takes time, and I can’t just generate a story, an amazing story [and] an amazing director in front of my eyes,” Montgomery said, explaining why he chose to take a step back from acting.

Since then, the Australian star has deliberately leaned toward smaller, independent projects. Aside from a supporting turn in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 hit Elvis, he has focused on films closer to the kind of storytelling he always envisioned for himself.

His latest release, the horror-fantasy Went Up the Hill, is an example of that shift. “Exactly the thing I want to be doing,” Montgomery said of the film, adding that he now feels aligned with his creative ambitions. “Now I kind of feel like I’m in a really, really good space with a couple of great movies coming up that fit the bill… in terms of where I wanted to be.”