Millie Bobby Brown told Glamour magazine (in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began) that she will not mourn the end of “Stranger Things,” which is set to film its fifth and final season once the strike is resolved.
“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 said. “’Stranger Things’ takes up a lot of time to film and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about. So I’m ready to say, ‘Thank you, and goodbye.’”
Brown noted that starring as Eleven in “Stranger Things” has given her “the tools and the resources to be a better actor,” adding, “When it ends, I’m going to be able to still see these people.” These comments echo similar ones Brown made to Women’s Wear Dailyin August, where she said she was ready for “Stranger Things” to end.
“I think I’m ready,” Brown said then. “It’s been such a huge factor in part of my life, but it’s like graduating high school, it’s like senior year. You’re ready to go and blossom and flourish and you’re grateful for the time you’ve had, but it’s time to create your own message and live your own life.”
One of her biggest non-“Stranger Things” projects on the horizon is “The Electric State,” a post-apocalyptic tentpole from the Russo Brothers co-starring Chris Pratt.
“To be able to go toe-to-toe with Chris Pratt!” Brown told Glamour. “It’s a very exciting opportunity that I never thought I’d be able to have, to be able to be treated the same as him and to be looked at and respected the same as him on the set by the production, by the studio.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Brown recalled backlash she faced as a 13-year-old girl during “Stranger Things” press tours. She was often criticized for talking over her co-stars in interviews and “trying to steal the thunder” of them, she remembered. Brown said adults called her “an idiot,” “stupid” and “a brat.”
“We’re kids — we talk over each other,” Brown said. “I was just penalized for over-talking and oversharing and being too loud.”
“It’s hard to hear that at 13,” she added. “You’re like, ‘I don’t want to ever talk again. I don’t want to be the loud person…In interviews I couldn’t help but think of all the comments. So I just remembered to stay silent and speak when I was spoken to, even though I was dying to join in. I just felt it wasn’t my turn.”
Her experience with backlash as a child actor has led her to want to protect other underage actors in the future.
“You cannot speak on children that are underage,” Brown said. “I mean, our brains physically have not grown yet. 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 think you can wear that? How dare you say that?’”
Brown most recently published her debut novel, “Nineteen Steps.”
