Millie Bobby Brown Was Told She Was Too Mature To Make It As A Child Star

In a recent interview with Allure, 18-year-old Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown shares that, when she was ten years old, a powerful casting director left her in tears when he told her she was “too mature” to make it in the entertainment industry. Um… huh? Did this guy mean that Millie was too serious? Or do Hollywood bigwigs want their child actors to be extra-naive so they can take advantage of them? But, also, don’t those same guys (for example, Drake) love the line, “You’re so mature for your age”? Pick a lane, creeps!

Apparently, Millie was given this confounding piece of criticism during a “disastrous audition” shortly before she got cast on Stranger Things:

“I always knew that I was mature and I couldn’t really help that,” she says. “Going back to what I said earlier about being kind of very lonely in who I was and feeling like no one was quite like me in school and no one was as mature as I was, [hearing that] was really hard because I thought [maturity] was a good thing. And then being told that it wasn’t, that I wouldn’t make it in this industry, it was so hurtful. I got really down about that. My parents told me, ‘Just do this one last audition on tape and then you can go outside and play with your friends again.’ So I said, ‘Okay, yeah, I should do this one because it looks cool.’”

Maybe Millie was mature. Or maybe she was just forced to keep calm and carry on because she was her Lohan-esque show-parents’ sole breadwinner. When Millie was 8, the Bobby Browns (I know it’s just the Browns, but let’s have some fun) sold everything they had, left England, and set sail to America for Millie’s acting career. She booked a few roles, but soon they ran outta money, almost went bankrupt, and moved back to the UK to stay with a relative. Not long after, Millie booked Stranger Things via self-tape, and the rest is herstory! So, yeah. That’s a lot of pressure for a kid.

Millie also tells Allure that acting was great for her because she battled feeling misunderstood and being “one of a kind”. So, like every preteen to ever preteen:

“I enjoyed being different people because I always struggled with self-identity and knowing who I was,” she says. “Even as a young person, I always felt like I didn’t quite belong in every room I was in. I also struggle with loneliness a bit. I always felt quite alone in a crowded room, like I was just one of a kind, like nobody ever really understood me. So I liked [playing] characters that people understood [and] people could relate to because I felt like no one could relate to Millie.”

She also discussed deleting Twitter and TikTok and letting other people handle her Facebook and Instagram pages after being bombarded with hate comments, threatening DMS, and “NSFW missives from adult men.”:

“It’s really hard to be hated on when you don’t know who you are yet,” she says. “So it’s like, ‘What do they hate about me? ’Cause I don’t know who I am.’ It’s almost like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try being this today.’ [And then they say], ‘Oh, no, I hate that.’ ‘Okay. Forget that. I’m going to try being this today.’ ‘Oh, my God! I hate when you do that.’ Then you just start shutting down because you’re like, ‘Who am I meant to be? Who do they need me to be for them?’ Then I started to grow more, and my family and friends really helped. It helped to be able to understand that I don’t need to be anything they said that I need to be. I just have to develop within myself. That’s what I did.”

She pauses, acknowledging there’s still work to be done: “That’s what I’m doing.”

Millie started shooting Stranger Things when she was eleven (which is also her character’s name), and she’s been super famous ever since. Now, because Millie is 18, she believes she is completely wise and all-knowing. Source: me at 18. But I’d love to see what she thinks of maturity and child stardom in ten years, when she’s had more time to process and reflect. Fingers crossed for a tell-all memoir a la iCarly star Jennette McCurdy! Possible title: How Did Drake Get My Number? 

Pic: Roger Wong/INSTARimages/Cover Images