Back in October, 17-year-old high school senior Damaris E. Fregoso sent Stranger Things‘ David Harbour, aka Hopper, a bold request: “@DavidKHarbour how many retweets for you [to] take my senior photos with me.” Not 20 minutes later, he replied: “25k. And I get to wear the school sweatshirt and hold a trombone.” The internet came through for Damaris, and in less than 24 hours she met her goal. Months after she sent the initial tweet, the teen shared the long-awaited photos onto her Twitter account over the weekend, and they were perfection.
As promised, Harbour wore an Orestimba High sweatshirt and posed with the trombone, but he also freestyled and added bunny ears and some cheerleading moves.
Immediately after getting the number of RTs, Harbour started coordinating with the teenager, and because of his shooting schedule (he was in Bulgaria shooting Hellboy), there was concern that he wouldn’t be able to make it. But in the first week of January, her mom and three siblings drove from Newman, California to Los Angeles for the photo shoot. Harbour put them up at The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, and the next day they met at the Netflix offices for the first time, according to The Modesto Bee. Initially, Damaris was overwhelmed and couldn’t muster anything other than a hello.
But Harbour quickly made her feel comfortable. During the photo session, Harbour, who stood behind her, was making everyone laugh. When she received the pictures, she could see why.
For Damaris, the experience was spectacular. “I would’ve never thought in a million years that I would ever get this opportunity to meet my favorite actor, and him be so genuine!” she tells Remezcla in a message.
When she sent out the initial message, she tried describing to her dad what she was trying to accomplish, starting off by explaining what Twitter was – a scenario that will likely resonate with other children of immigrants.
“For my parents, it was funny because they didn’t really know what Twitter was, but they were very shocked that I actually got the amount needed,” she adds. ‘Even more shocked that they we were going to meet David. My dad wasn’t able to make it because he was working, but he was so happy for me!”
Today, she’ll walk into school and hope that her school accepts the photos. But as she and Harbour showed in their photographs, they took extra care to follow the rules that were laid out.