Millie Bobby Brown, who plays the telekinetic government experiment Eleven on Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” is the 12-year-old breakout star of the series’ runaway hit. She is currently here in Manila as one of the headliners of Asiapop Comicon.
Super sat down with her before she headed to SMX Convention to meet her fans, and discovered 11 not-so-strange things about her:
1. She was scared while watching “Stranger Things.”
It’s hard to believe that Eleven’s Millie Bobby Brown, the girl who can kill a whole room of people with just a thought, gets frightened easily, and by her own show at that. “I was scared of myself. Like, wow, Eleven’s evil. But yeah, the boys (her co-stars) were laughing at me.”
2. Her siblings are her social media managers.
Millie’s sister runs Instagram (she was the one who edited the video of Millie getting her head shaved for the role), while her brother runs Twitter.
3. Millie didn’t know what a record player was and learned about it on the set of “Stranger Things.”
“When I got onto the set, it was amazing and the props department was fantastic. I never knew what a record player was. I was like, ‘What is that?’ It’s got a circle with a stick in it, and they were like, ‘That’s a vinyl.’ And I got one for Christmas!”
4. Millie went on an ’80s watching binge to get into the role.
“The Goonies,” “Stand By Me,” “E.T.,” and “Poltergeist” were some of the films she watched.
5. Millie can do different American accents and would switch from a Southern accent to her original English accent while ordering at McDonald’s.
6. She’s currently watching “Friday Night Lights” on Netflix.
7. One strange fact about her: she’s extremely annoyed by people who are loud eaters.
“My mum, when she has chips, I tell her, ‘Mum, mum, keep it quiet,’ and she goes, ‘How am I supposed to eat them? They’re chips! They’re crunchy!’ Just suck on them and chew!”
8. Despite Eleven becoming a worldwide sensation, Millie can still walk around unrecognized.
“My hair’s grown, so I don’t look like Eleven. I wear prescription glasses, too, so people don’t recognize me.”
9. She enjoyed putting her martial arts skills to use on the show.
Millie enjoys boxing and jiujitsu as exercise and she was actually thrilled to be able to use it during one scene on “Stranger Things.” “There were these two men and I got to try and bite them and I got to use my boxing moves, and I loved it!”
10. She wants her shaved head to inspire people.
While she had to shave her head for a role, Millie is hoping that the act itself would encourage and inspire people. “There are kids out there who have no choice, who have alopecia, cancer, terrible diseases… and I thought why not inspire people to think it’s cool to have shorn hair, why not embrace it? I hope I inspire people.”
11. She doesn’t quite understand so-called The Upside Down herself.
“I’m still kind of processing what it means. Like I still don’t get it and they’re like, ‘Everybody else does, why don’t you?’ I want to but I don’t (laughs). Me and Winona (co-star Winona Ryder), we’ve given up.
Read the full interview with Millie on next week’s issue of Super. Watch “Stranger Things” by signing up for a Netflix account.
