Millie Bobby Brown is defending child actors against unwarranted attacks from adults.
The 19-year-old knows a thing or two about life in the spotlight, as she became famous at age 12 when “Stranger Things” premiered in 2016. Brown is now using her newfound status as one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year to speak up.
She shared with the outlet instances of adults calling her names such as “an idiot” and “a brat” during her early press tour days with the cast promoting “Stranger Things,” adding, “I was just penalized for overtalking and oversharing and being too loud.”
Explaining she let that criticism impact how she showed up in interviews, but now she’s firm in defending other child actors who are just being kids. “You cannot speak on children that are underage,” she said.
“I mean, our brains physically have not grown yet,” she continued. “To diminish and practically stunt someone’s growth mentally, strip them down, tell them, ‘Hey, listen, you don’t look that great. Why are you wearing that? … How dare you say that?’”
The Briton became a global sensation when the Duffer Brothers cast her in the ongoing Netflix phenomenon series. Brown, who plays a child abducted by the government for human experiments and is callously christened Eleven, was forced to grow up quickly.
Following the show’s tremendous popularity, Brown ultimately decided to put up defensive walls to protect herself from outside criticism that she experienced at a young age.
“Nobody’s allowed in,” she told Glamour. “Nobody can say shit. This is my life, and the only people that are allowed are the people that I open the gate for. Other than that, everybody’s out. And yes, it’s sad. There are trust issues.”
She continued, “And yes, I have issues with having friends. I don’t have a lot of friends.”
The MTV Movie & TV Award winner did find friendship in Drake, however, with their 17-year age gap spurring genuine concern among fans. The rapper recently addressed his bond with Brown in a new song, leading to renewed confusion on social media.
“Stranger Things” — which also stars Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo — has had an enormously successful run for four award-winning seasons. While it’s due to return for one last hurrah, Brown is already itching for it to end.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press
She ultimately compared that feeling to the last year of high school.
“When you’re ready, you’re like, ‘All right, let’s do this. Let’s tackle this last senior year. Let’s get out of here,’” Brown told Glamour. “Stranger Things takes up a lot of time to film and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about.”
She continued: “So I’m ready to say, ‘Thank you, and goodbye.’”
Brown previously expressed how hard it was to grow up in the public eye in 2022 and told Allure, “It’s really hard to be hated on when you don’t know who you are yet.” She said, “You just start shutting down,” and that only her friends and family helped her stay positive.
She published a candid Instagram post two years prior to denouncing the “inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization, and unnecessary insults” she endured as an underage celebrity, but noted: “not ever will i be defeated. ill continue doing what i love.”
The actor has certainly come into her own over the past few years.
Brown has not only written a novel about her grandmother’s experiences during World War II, but changed her entire perspective on marriage — and got engaged to Jake Bongiovi. Despite her growth, Brown told Glamour that fame changed her forever.
“I will never let that gate open again,” she told the outlet. “Because everyone’s crossed it.”