‘Welcome to Derry’ Star Miles Ekhardt Talks Fear, Micro-Expression Acting, and the “No” That Changed His Career
“The biggest [memory] I remember is when we were filming the intro sequence… I think Andy Muschietti summoned some wind totem to conjure up snow that day… That was a point where it just felt like, ‘Damn, this is a real thing happening here.’ I could really feel what that world was that I was in because it was really stormy, I was in costume, and I was just feeling that there is something going on here, something real being created.”
I had the pleasure of talking with Miles Ekhardt. In the sprawling, often chaotic ecosystem of young Hollywood, there is a tendency to mistake loudness for talent. We expect our rising stars to arrive with a bang, dragging a trail of viral moments and carefully curated controversies behind them. Miles Ekhardt, however, seems to have materialized from the quiet. He is an Iowa native whose ascent feels less like a rocket launch and more like a slow, deliberate fade-in. He currently stars in HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry, a prequel series that dissects the anatomy of fear in Stephen King’s cursed geography. For Ekhardt, the role is a job as well as a study in stillness amidst the screaming.
Ekhardt’s journey to the screen lacks the typical gloss of a Disney Channel fabrication. “My origin story doesn’t have too many grand spectacles of note,” he admits with a dry, self-effacing candor. “I was born within a family of six, just living my life and doing our thing until eventually, somewhere in elementary school, I started acting.”
It sounds simple, almost pastoral, until the reality of the industry intruded. Ekhardt cut his teeth on the stage, leaving home at age ten to tour the East Coast in a production of A Christmas Carol. It was here, playing Tiny Tim, that the romanticism of the theater collided with the physical dangers of the road. He recalls a tour bus crash that shattered the illusion of safety.
“I think that was the first time I realized there were actual risks in this little acting industry,” Ekhardt says, reflecting on the tensions that boiled over within the company. “It’s not just glitz and joy and getting to pretend to be someone.”
That crash served as a strange, violent graduation, a transition from the play-acting of childhood to the “endless mill” of the professional world. When the pandemic shuttered theaters, Ekhardt found himself in the digital purgatory of self-tapes, recording auditions into the void until Welcome to Derry pulled him out. The production, helmed by Andy Muschietti, demanded a level of immersion that felt jarringly real compared to the sterile audition tapes.
Ekhardt recalls a specific moment of realization while filming an intro sequence in the bitter cold. “I think Andy Muschietti summoned some wind totem to conjure up snow that day,” he jokes, though the memory is visceral. Alone under a bridge, battered by artificial elements that felt all too genuine, the weight of the project settled in. “That was a point where it just felt like, ‘Damn, this is a real thing happening here.’… I was just feeling that there is something going on here, something real being created.”
In Derry, Ekhardt plays Matty, a character navigating a world defined by “Lovecraftian space clown” horror and profound human depression. The challenge for Ekhardt wasn’t learning to scream, but learning to be quiet. Coming from the theater, where emotions must reach the back row, he had to recalibrate for the unforgiving intimacy of the camera lens.
“You have to be breathing with that character,” he explains. “You can’t really get away with impersonating them when you’re on camera.”
This internal approach was necessary because, by his own admission, Ekhardt and Matty are polar opposites. “I am not naturally very expressive. I am not naturally very fearful of much,” he says. To bridge the gap, he had to excavate emotions he rarely touches in his daily life, relying on micro-expressions to convey Matty’s “resting depression” and “nuanced love.” It is a performance built on the tension between what is felt and what is shown.
Ekhardt’s career path is also defined by the doors that didn’t open. In a refreshing twist on the standard success narrative, he speaks openly about the roles that got away, specifically, the Minecraft movie. It was his “white whale,” a role he lost to Sebastian Hansen. Yet, looking back, he sees the rejection as a necessary redirection. Had he landed the blockbuster, the scheduling would have barred him from the darker, more complex world of Derry.
“I really don’t regret that ‘no’ now because I absolutely love the role of Matty Clements,” he says. “He’s a character with so much more depth to actually play around with.”
Despite the heavy subject matter of his work, Ekhardt remains grounded in the mundane realities of being a student. He balances premiere appearances with homework, managing a duality that most teenagers couldn’t fathom. He speaks of “keeping yourself accountable” when the only authority figures are a time zone away. It is a disciplined existence, devoid of the party-boy antics that often consume young actors.
When asked about his influence, his mind doesn’t jump to brand deals or TikTok trends, but to the planet. “The true sort of activism or movement that has stayed in the back of my mind the most has been the environment,” he says, noting the grim permanence of climate change compared to the fleeting nature of Hollywood drama.
Miles Ekhardt is not trying to sell you a persona. He is “too young and hip” for most social media, preferring to let the work speak for itself. In an industry obsessed with noise, he is finding his power in the silence, one micro-expression at a time.
Yitzi: Miles, it’s so nice to meet you. Before we dive in deeper, our readers would love to learn about Miles Ekhardt’s personal origin story. Can you share with us a story of your childhood, how you grew up, and the seeds for the amazing things that you’ve accomplished?
Miles: Yeah. My origin story doesn’t have too many grand spectacles of note. I was born within a family of six, just living my life and doing our thing until eventually, somewhere in elementary school, I started acting. Really, everything of note stems from there. I kept acting, and eventually, I went on tour for a bit. I left home and went to the East Coast when I was somewhere around ten, I think, for A Christmas Carol. From there, I came back and slowly started to grow this acting career. Not too many grand events happened in the rest of my life; I was still living all that. Then I went to LA to try and find an agent and manager. Then COVID happened, and I had to face the endless mill of getting sent an audition, memorizing that, and recording it into a camera. I did that for a while before Turtles All the Way Down found me. Eventually, Welcome to Derry called back, and I ended up in it.
Yitzi: That’s great. It’s amazing. You probably have some amazing stories from all the different projects you’ve been on and the places you’ve been. Can you share with our readers one or two stories that most stand out in your mind from your career?
Miles: Well, being only two projects deep on the camera side of acting, I definitely remember before I made it to the screen and was still in regular theater. When I was touring for Christmas Carol, just a Tiny Tim in my little days, we were going along the East Coast, and eventually, the bus actually crashed. There was a lot going on there with the interactions between the company and the actors and the tensions there that eventually led to all that happening. It ended prematurely, the run ended after that crash happened, before we finished all of our venues. I think that was the first time I realized there were actual risks in this little acting industry. It’s not just glitz and joy and getting to pretend to be someone. There are tensions here and there; there’s a lot going on.
When it comes to my work on camera, that’s all been great. I have many, many great memories from working on Derry. The biggest one I remember is when we were filming the intro sequence, particularly the tiny little jaunt where I am going under the bridge out in the snow before I get into the car. Once we’re in the car, I was on a sound stage, but before then, it was just me out there in the snow. I think Andy Muschietti summoned some wind totem to conjure up snow that day because it was partway into spring by then. That was a point where it just felt like, “Damn, this is a real thing happening here.” I could really feel what that world was that I was in because it was really stormy, I was in costume, and I was just feeling that there is something going on here, something real being created.
Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a funny mistake that you made when you were first starting and the lesson that you took away from it?
Miles: I don’t know how funny my mistakes were, but the largest one I kept making when I was starting was that I was naturally just so big with everything. This partially came from my theater background where you have to be a lot bigger than you are in film. It was definitely a big thing to learn to tone that back and just be real with everything. You have to really be thinking what that character is thinking. You have to be breathing with that character. You can’t really get away with impersonating them when you’re on camera. I think that was my biggest lesson.
Yitzi: There’s a saying that “no” is not rejection, but redirection. Do you have a story like that where a “no” that you got led to an unexpected discovery, success, or blessing?
Miles: Well, I have faced a whole lot of “nos” in my days as an actor, as I’m sure all of us have. That’s the process of auditioning. You just constantly get another and another “no” until eventually, there’s a “yes.” There are quite a few projects that I could have gotten on where I wouldn’t have been able to do Derry if I had. The one I remember, and I can probably say this; if I can’t, I’ll get the publicist to stalk you on the draft, was auditioning for the Minecraft movie. That, for a while, was my real white whale, the one that got away. I ended up in callbacks on the short list of about five people for the lead kid, who eventually got played by Sebastian Hansen. That was one I really wanted to get cast on. But if I had been, the planned film date would have had me pinned for all of Derry, and I would have never touched that role. I really don’t regret that “no” now because I absolutely love the role of Matty Clements. He’s a character with so much more depth to actually play around with.
Yitzi: What’s been the most challenging role you’ve taken on so far and why?
Miles: Well, coming back to the fact that I haven’t played too many, it’s definitely Matty. He is a pretty complicated character, and the world he lives in, of It and Derry, is very detailed and in-depth. Andy Muschietti had a very distinct vision for what was happening here. It’s not that he was inflexible, but there was a standard of quality for where this character is living. So, it was definitely hard. That was where I had to learn a lot more about getting to the truth of the character to get the whole range of emotions he plays. There is a lot of very soulful, innate fear that I had to get out there. In episode one, getting the nuanced love in that, getting just what his resting depression is like day-to-day, and in episode five, where you have to do all that and also figure out the Lovecraftian space clown side of him. It is a very complex role.
Yitzi: That’s amazing. Have you seen all the other It films in the universe?
Miles: I haven’t seen the original series, but I’ve seen all the ones canon to this universe. After episode five, it’s somewhat apparent that I probably should have watched or read The Shining and Doctor Sleep. I think watching is a little more accurate to the canon we’re in. So, there is a whole lot of stuff to catch up on to get every little corner of this universe that it’s pulling upon, but I have at least seen the Muschietti films already.
Yitzi: Do you like horror?
Miles: I’m becoming a growing horror fan. I really stayed away from it before I got this role, but since then, I had to watch It to understand what was going on. I can see what people like in it. You can get a very strong emotional connection to it through fear, instead of it just being a cheap cop-out.
Yitzi: How do you compare and contrast your personal character, Miles, with Matty, the character you play? How are you similar, and how are you different?
Miles: Well, we’ve got a whole lot of differences, and that was part of the hard part in getting there. I remember the director for episode five really wanted me to build off of myself into the character, and that was very hard to do. I am not naturally very expressive. I am not naturally very fearful of much. I process emotions very internally and then figure out what to express outwards. Matty is very different. He is a character who is in the absolute furthest extent of situations someone can be in. I really had to find some way to get to that beyond what I can naturally get to in my day-to-day. I think you can see the result of that in how micro-expression-based my performance in episode five ended up being. I don’t have too many strong reactions to things; I just have all these very small internal things that are kind of bleeding out a little. So there were a lot of differences to deal with. We’re not all too similar.
Yitzi: Can you tell us why readers have to watch Welcome to Derry?
Miles: Well, you don’t have to do anything; you’ve got free will. But I would heavily recommend it. I think this one really explores what fear has done in society. The basis of It is how this creature interacts with fear among kids. But with this one, there’s a lot broader context on what fear has been. There’s a lot of that with how the 60s society reacts to fearing each other and how that creates these social dynamics and systems. It really goes into where that part in society is. That is the biggest reason I would recommend watching it.
Yitzi: Miles, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success now, and you must have learned a lot from your experiences. Looking back to when you first started acting, can you share five things that you’ve learned over the years that would have been really nice to know when you first started?
Miles: I don’t know how well my modern self would be able to teach my six or seven-year-old self what to do, but I think the biggest things I would have gotten to are:
- Understand the truth of your character and what’s happening there.
- Understand the truth of yourself, how you get those emotions to play, how you react to things, and figure out how to bridge the gap between those two.
- Give roles time. I have learned it takes a lot longer to do things. I’m now in the process where, for every audition I do, I strive to get 15 takes on every side. It takes a lot of time to really build into that zone where you can really be there.
- Keep going. It is a very tiring and stressful process at times.
- Eventually, roles happen to come to you, like Turtles or like Derry. There is an actual light somewhere, even though it seems very surreal and unobtainable.
Yitzi: You are still in school. Do you have any advice on how to balance work and school? Most people your age don’t work.
Miles: It can definitely be a bit of a hurdle. I found it pretty manageable when I was actually filming. For Turtles, I was only gone for a week. For Derry, I was gone for about a semester, but I was able to keep in contact with teachers. The hardest part I found with that is keeping yourself accountable. When all the teachers, everyone who has any tools to really bring you back, are in another country, you really have to just control yourself to get things done without the pressures of immediate grade feedback or social pressures pushing back on you. I think that was the hardest part to balance. Recently, when I wanted to go to the premiere and had all these new auditions and interviews to do that have been cutting away at school time, I found that a lot harder to manage because now you really have to think about time. But in general, you have to learn how to convince yourself that you need to do what you need to do with all these things stacking on top of each other because everything involved has so much effect on what your future is going to be.
Yitzi: Do you have any exciting new projects or announcements that you want to share with us?
Miles: So far, I’ve just been back to auditioning, the way of things. I haven’t landed in any role or any project, but people will find out if that ever does happen again.
Yitzi: This is what we call our “matchmaker question,” and sometimes it works. We’re very blessed that prominent leaders in entertainment and business read this column. Maybe we could connect you. Is there a person in the world or the United States with whom you’d like to collaborate, work with, or have a lunch with? We could tag them on social media.
Miles: The one I am thinking of now, because we talked about it earlier, is Sebastian Hansen, the eventual player of Henry in that movie. Someday, I would like to meet that fine fellow. I just want to know what his approach to a character is like. How does he get there? What am I missing out on? Where is my missing link to become the ultimate actor?
Yitzi: Miles, because of your great work and the platform that you’ve built, you’re a person of great influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Miles: That’s a good one. I think the true sort of activism or movement that has stayed in the back of my mind the most has been the environment. There are a lot of very shitty things going on in the world right now, but I feel like that one sticks in my mind because that’s the most permanent of everything. I think everyone knows to some extent the world is heading towards a very bad place regarding the environment, but we aren’t actively conscious of that enough to make enough efforts to really stop it. So that’s something I’d like to spread the word about.
Yitzi: How can our readers continue to follow your work, watch Welcome to Derry, or support you?
Miles: Well, we’ll see what work I have next. If you want to find me, I’m on Instagram, just Miles Eckhart. I’m sadly too young and hip to be on any of those other social media out there. But that’s a way to keep up with whatever might be happening.
Yitzi: Well, Miles, it’s been so nice to meet you. Wish you continued success and good health, and I hope we do this again next year.
‘Welcome to Derry’ Star Miles Ekhardt Talks Fear, Micro-Expression Acting, and the “No” That… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.