Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown on shaving head, getting married & what fans can expect from final season
SINCE first appearing in Stranger Things almost a decade ago, Millie Bobby Brown has gone from an unknown to a global star – and daughter-in-law to a rock legend.
The 21-year-old, who married Jon Bon Jovi’s son, Jake Bongiovi, last year, blossomed from wide-eyed wannabe to well-rounded woman while the world looked on.
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Millie Bobby Brown at this month’s UK premiere of Stranger Things series 5Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
Millie said: ‘When I shaved my hair off, it changed my whole perspective on what my actual look was and who I was’Credit: Netflix / Supplied by LMK
Millie with co-star David Harbour in a scene from the final seasonCredit: PA
And as the fifth and final series of the supernatural drama drops on Netflix on Thursday, Millie reveals that shaving her head to play character Eleven was a pivotal moment — not just in her career, but also her childhood.
She said: “Growing up in the public eye, I left my vanity and my ego at the door when I shaved my hair off in season one.
“I didn’t come in with much of a perspective because shaving my hair off felt like a really big moment just for me as a child.
“To lose a certain aspect of your identity so early on in your childhood that typically identifies you as what you are, right?
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‘Feminine feature’
“When I shaved my hair off, it changed my whole perspective on what my actual look was and who I was.
“I was young to be able to think those things, but I really did think those things.”
Millie added: “Over the last ten years, we’ve given up ourselves and our identity for a show.
“But we never had to compromise it.
“We were always allowed to play and do our own thing.”
When Millie was eventually seen out and about with long, flowing locks, her public image and how she saw herself started to grow.
She said: “Having long hair for me was a really feminine feature that I leaned into.”
Season One of Stranger Things, which also starred Winona Ryder and David Harbour, was a huge hit in July 2016 and set Millie on the path to stardom.
That was only magnified when Series Two came along in October 2017.
But despite having the world at her feet, Millie was still struggling with all the normal things a teenage girl has to navigate — including developing feelings for the opposite sex.
She said: “When I watch back Seasons One and Two, it reminds me of periods of time in my life.
“For me, Season Two was like, I didn’t understand why boys didn’t like me at that time.
“All the boys were finally talking about girls.
“But I didn’t know who liked me.
“Then I started to have crushes.
“Season Three is when I had my first boyfriend.
“To watch that back reminds me of all the parts of my life that I was so obsessed with.”
But there was no way that Millie could ever have predicted meeting future husband Jake in 2021, and finding herself marrying, effectively, into rock royalty.
Her husband’s dad fronted Bon Jovi, one of the world’s greatest rock bands.
In August, the couple announced they had become parents after adopting a baby girl.
Everyone is going to lose their damn minds over Series 5! I cannot wait for you guys to see how Eleven harnesses her powers in different ways… This season is darkest yet
But while she was preparing to tie the knot with Jake in a lavish Tuscan ceremony in May last year, Mille was also juggling the demands of shooting Stranger Things.
She told the Trailer Talk And Tea podcast: “On this season, I knew I was getting married.
“A week before my wedding, I was filming some of the most important scenes in the show.
“But I needed long hair for my wedding, so I put these extensions in and I knew what I wanted.
“The poor hair team had to fit it in a bun that made it look small, but actually it was so much hair.
‘The darkest yet’
“The way they were able to construct it and braid it was insane.”
As Stranger Things returns for its last outing, Hawkins is in ruins, with the gang still reeling from villain Vecna — played by Jamie Campbell Bower — making the Upside Down bleed into the real world.
The final eight episodes are set in the autumn of 1987 and waste no time ramping up the pace.
Millie and Jake Bongiovi with their baby girl in AugustCredit: Instar Images
The couple at the 2022 premiere of Millie’s Netflix movie Enola Holmes 2 in New YorkCredit: Splash
And Eleven and the gang are not preparing for some distant threat as the apocalypse has already arrived.
Millie has promised fans the biggest, darkest and most emotional series yet, with the episodes described as being like “eight movies”.
The scale is larger, the stakes higher and the sense of finality impossible to ignore.
Millie, who was nominated for a string of awards for her Stranger Things role, including two Emmys, said: “Everyone is going to lose their damn minds!
“I cannot wait for you guys to see how Eleven harnesses her powers in many different ways.
“She’s definitely levelled up.
“This season has been the hardest to keep secret.
“There’s so many loose ends that get tied up and I just can’t help but want to tell everyone.
Growing up in the public eye, I left my vanity and my ego at the door when I shaved my hair off in season one
“I think this season is the darkest yet — and the most intense.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Eleven so locked in.
“She has a goal and a mission, and I’m really excited for audiences to root for her . . . for one last adventure.”
Millie had only secured a series of small supporting roles before her big break in 2015, when she began filming Stranger Things.
Born in Marbella, Spain, to British parents Kelly and Robert Brown, she moved to Bournemouth, Dorset, when she was four.
Her family then relocated to Orlando, Florida, in 2011.
While at a weekend acting workshop, Millie was spotted by a talent scout who reckoned she might do well in Hollywood.
After meetings with agencies in LA, her acting debut came in 2013 on fantasy drama Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, followed by paranormal thriller, Intruders.
‘My inner child’
Millie was also in cop procedural series NCIS, sitcom Modern Family and medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.
Then came Stranger Things.
This season has been the hardest to keep secret. There’s so many loose ends that get tied up and I just can’t help but want to tell everyone
She admits Stranger Things has been like an apprenticeship, helping her learn more about her skill and craft.
But she added: “I’ve also learnt a lot about being a good friend and harnessing my inner child.
“You grow up and naturally want to be an adult.
“But with this show, every time I come back to film, it makes me regress and it’s the most positive experience, just falling back into the kid who loves to play hide-and-seek on set.”
It is no wonder, then, that Millie had such an emotional reaction when the show’s creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, sent her the pink dress she wore in series one to commemorate her time on Stranger Things.
She said: “I sobbed when I went home and opened it and saw it.
“It felt like a piece of my childhood is now with me forever.
“I was on the floor crying, holding it.
“It’s in my movie room.
“I have a wall of Stranger Things — old pictures, behind-the-scenes things the Duffers gave me, and I have it right in the middle.
“People don’t realise, then I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s the real one’. It’s a Stranger Things museum!”
It is certainly the end of an era for fans as they prepare to say goodbye the show.
And Millie admits bidding farewell to Eleven was tough.
She said: “The second we wrapped, nobody’s texting me my call time or when I’m available to do something.
“It goes from everyone caring about you to no one.
“It sounds sad, but it’s true.
“That aspect of your life is done and you’re on to the next thing.
“You have to relearn how to live a lot of the time.
“It’s going to be new for me.
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“It’s a very new chapter of my life that I have to relearn because so much of it has been Stranger Things.”
- Stranger Things season five will be released in three parts: volume one on Thursday; volume two on December 26; and the finale on New Year’s Day.
