Exclusive: Gaten Matarazzo Says Filming OCTET Was ‘Unreal,’ Describes Its ‘Fast Process’

Gaten Matarazzo promises that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film adaptation of Dave Malloy’s chamber musical Octet will be worth the wait. 

The actor — who is among the movie’s star-studded cast, which also includes Amanda Seyfried, Rachel Zegler, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Phillipa Soo, Jonathan Groff, Tramell Tillman and Paul-Jordan Jansen — exclusively tells BroadwayWorld that filming the project earlier this year was “unreal.”   

“Oh my God,” Matarazzo adds. “It’s so good. It’s so weird. Everybody in it is astounding. I’m obsessed with the people in this project, from cast to crew.” 

The Stranger Things alum, who is currently starring as Mark in the West End production of Jonathan Larson’s Rent, admits that getting to be part of making Octet was a “pinch-me” moment and a complete “blur.” 

“It was such a fast process — and such a weird blending of processes,” Matarazzo reveals. “The first half of it was very theater-y. We were doing all of our music rehearsals because it’s basically completely sung through.” 

The musical by Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 writer Malloy is an a cappella chamber piece about eight internet-obsessed people who meet in a church basement. 

“It’s eight vocal parts, but only eight actors,” Matarazzo explains. “When you’re learning how to sing through a score, usually you look around to the other people singing your vocal part, and they can pick up that slack there. But in this one, I was Tenor 1, so I was holding down Tenor 1 the whole [time]. I had to make sure I had everything locked the f**k in before we started recording the soundtrack!” 

Matarazzo says learning Malloy’s music went on for three weeks at a rehearsal studio in the United Palace theater in Washington Heights. 

“It felt like we were about to go start staging it,” Matarazzo explains. “And then one day, we’re in a studio in Yonkers, and we’re on set!” 

“We have all these tools that we’ve created for ourselves — and all this rehearsal time and discussion about who these characters are — then finally get thrust in costume onto the set in one switch of a day.” 

From there, Matarazzo says, “It felt like a completely different four weeks. It was unreal. It was so fun. It’s got the greatest cast.” 

In the upcoming film version of Octet, Seyfried will play Jessica with Zegler as Velma, Ralph as Paula, Soo as Karly, Matarazzo as Toby, Groff as Henry, Tillman as Marvin and Jansen as Ed.  

A release date for the film has not yet been announced. 

The musical, which follows an octet of people struggling with digital dependency, premiered in May 2019, at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre. The production was directed and choreographed by Annie Tippe, with music supervision and music direction by Or Matias. 

After nearly a decade playing Dustin Henderson in Netflix’s hit supernatural series Stranger Things, Matarazzo — who can be seen at London’s Tom Stoppard Theatre in Rent — tells BroadwayWorld he is “content as of now to stick around” the theater world “for a while.” 

Photo Credit: Victoria Stevens