During a Thursday FYC event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the tables were turned on the elder statesman of Stranger Things, David Harbour, as he was asked what he learned from his younger castmates on the Netflix thriller-drama series.

“Uh, nothing,” he joked at first, before describing the first season of the Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer-created show as a “magical experience.”

Noting that Season 5 “transcends character” and becomes more “about Matt and Ross’ vision — which became so large and epic in scale and scope and the things that they accomplished cinematically in a TV format, I’ve never seen done before, and I think is to be applauded and celebrated,” the twice Emmy-nominated actor joked that his “favorite season” was Season 1 because “I was thinner.”

Going back to the question, his answer at times interrupted by his mic feed cutting out — the “Hawkins power and lights coming together,” he commented — Harbour said the child leads (Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp, among others) “were just enjoyable as hell.”

He added, “A lot of kid actors that you work with are very actor-y and they really know what they’re doing, and part of the strength of the actors that they formed were that, at their essence, Noah and all these little kids were just kind of kids. Even during takes, they would fart and do things that were — you just couldn’t believe that you had the relaxation to do that in front of a camera that was spinning. I was like, ‘That’s incredible relaxation. I would dream of being able to do that. Not being self-conscious in that way.'”

Director and executive producer Shawn Levy chimed in: “That’s something you learned.”

“But I can’t do it. I tried, Shawn,” Harbour responded, before continuing: “No, so, real beautiful human beings. They were just a joy to work with, and I had a blast. I look back on that [first] season as just being a miraculous time in my life. Hopper was a very depressed individual, it was really tough to go through the acting of that, but the family we created and the story we were telling, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that enriched by some work that I was doing.”

Stranger Things debuted to instantaneous success on the streaming platform in 2016, concluding its five-season run last New Year’s Eve. It has won a dozen Emmys and will once again be eligible as a contender this year. The series has additionally spawned an animated spinoff, Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, recently renewed for a Season 2, as well as a Broadway prequel show that was taped for future feature release.