'Stranger Things' star David Harbour admits he hated lying about Hopper's death

David Harbour participated in a Q&A with "Stranger Things" co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer recently. They talked about the actor's portrayal of Chief Jim Hopper and his "death" in Season 3.

The teaser trailer for Season 4 confirmed fans' long-held theory that Hopper is alive. The preview revealed that he is a prisoner in Russia. How and why he became one is still a mystery. But prior to the reveal, Harbour had to pretend that he did not know about his character's fate. He had to lie in interviews and he hated it.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you hate having to hide Hopper's fate from the public?" Matt asked the actor in a Netflix Queue interview.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it an 11. It was awful. I'd go on talk shows, and they'd be like, 'So, you're dead?' I'd be like, 'I guess so.' I just had to lie to people," Hopper replied.

"I feel like everybody kind of knew that he wasn't dead, because you didn't see the body, and in sci-fi, if you don't see the body . . . Also, I think people love him so much — as I do — that they didn't want him to be dead," he added.

In the same interview, the "Hellboy" star shared how he prepared for Hopper's return in "Stranger Things" Season 4. He said he prefers to "make a lot of choices coming in" and loves "to prepare."

"I love to work in the same way, I think, as you guys do. You'll go into the room, and you'll be there for — who knows? Fourteen hours a day, six days a week? I don't walk into a specific room and work, but I'm always going over things," Harbour explained, adding that there are also times when he is just thinking over stuff on how to create Hopper's mindset or his body language and "what he is dealing with that particular season."

"The great thing about Hopper is he is a very serious guy who's been through some serious stuff, and he's a tremendous cop in a certain way. He can also be a bit of a buffoon and completely lost, but you buy that that's the same individual. I have to do a lot of work to create that, but it's so pleasurable to inhabit someone who is so three-dimensional," the actor added.

Harbour, The Duffer Brothers, and the rest of the "Stranger Things" cast will return to Atlanta, Georgia soon for filming. Production on Season 4 is said to resume on Sept. 28.