Pandora x Millie Bobbie Brown
Millie Bobby Brown is your normal 15-year-old girl—save for the hit Netflix show Stranger Things, fashion campaigns, red carpet moments, and most recently, her own beauty brand. But sitting across from me at the Four Seasons hotel in New York, she’s just a regular teen. “I’m really into Lizzo right now,” she tells me, when I ask about her song of the moment. “‘Better in Color’—love that song! I look at her Instagram on the daily.”
Brown is particularly savvy on Instagram where her 29.6 million followers track her expertly-taken selfies, behind-the-scenes moments with her Stranger Things castmates, and updates on her latest projects. Brown’s newest venture, a partnership with Pandora Jewelry as the face of their line Pandora Me, comes on the heels of the official announcement of Stranger Things 4. ELLE caught up with the multi-talented teen to talk fan theories, filming season 3, and what’s next.
How did this partnership with Pandora come about?
I was nine or 10 when I lived in California and my best friend and I were in a mall and I went into my first-ever Pandora store. I had never purchased my own thing before. We bought the matching charms and slowly became obsessed with it. For Christmas, my grandparents got me a different charm every year. I was always a really big fan of Pandora. I found it unique and different because it’s not just this one particular piece of jewelry, you can actually add what you want to.
Everyone’s very excited about Stranger Things 4.
You know what the funny thing is? I was walking around saying, “Oh yeah, season 4? We’re filming it next year. Yeah, yeah. And then I realized, Oh, we haven’t even confirmed it!” I looked at my Instagram [and saw the announcement], and I was like, “Well would you look at that.” None of us really knew that it was not actually [announced]. We were like, “Oh okay, we shouldn’t have said that.” So now I’m keeping my mouth shut on all things Stranger Things.
Well, my next three questions are only about Stranger Things, so….But really, they’re not probing. What do you hope happens for Eleven in Stranger Things 4?
I hope she finds who she is, without a boy, a male influence in her life. There’s Mike and Papa and Hopper and all the boys really. Even without Max, she needs to find herself by herself. Everyone needs that moment in life to sit there and think, “Who am I as a person, who am I without everyone around me? How can I really love myself?” I don’t know if she knows how to do that yet. So I would like an arc for Eleven to learn how to love herself and learn who she is, which is hard in the circumstances she’s in. I think that she needs a little self journey.
So you’re here for Eleven moving away at the end of season 3?
Not really. I was pissed! I read the script and I was like, “What, how is this even possible? Why are they moving away?” They were like “Didn’t you read episode 3?” And I was like, “Oh yeah.” Because Joyce said she wanted to move away from Hawkins. I don’t know, I just felt really against it. When we were filming it, all of us kids said to each other, “So how are we all going to cry?” Because we don’t really cry in front of each other very often. I usually am the one who’s crying in every single scene and the kids have to deal with me listening to [sad] music and they’re like, “Oh God.”
I thought, are we all going to go off and listen to music? And then one of the kids was like, “Imagine if we have to do this for real one day.” And we were like, “What do you mean?” And they were like, “What if, when Stranger Things is over, we’ll all have to say goodbye to each other and like this is it.” And we all started crying and then they rolled camera and said action. And that was it. We all started saying goodbye to each other. We felt too real.
Who was the sweet soul who came up with that?
I’m pretty sure it was either Sadie [Sink] or Gaten [Matarazzo]. But I remember they said it and we all started crying. And then when we were saying goodbye to each other, hugging, Mike and I were hugging. I mean obviously we have to act, but afterwards we felt like it was really real. So it was actually a real raw emotional scene.
There’s this popular Stranger Things theory that at the end of season 3, Eleven gets grabbed by the Mind Flayer and part of its flesh got stuck in her leg. Some fans believe Eleven is now infected by the Mind Flayer and that she might be the villain for season 4. Thoughts?
I kind of like it! I’m into it. I wasn’t playing it like that. We don’t know what happens in season 4. I definitely don’t. In scenes after the Mind Flayer grabbed me, I wasn’t playing it as I was infected. I was definitely playing it as normal as possible. And maybe that’s the reason they didn’t tell me. To make it as real as possible. I don’t know. Those theories freak me out a bit. Because I’m like, “Oh god, that could genuinely be true.” And what if she is the villain? That would be so cool. Wouldn’t that be cool? I’d love to be the villain, but then I also wouldn’t because Eleven is perfect. It would suck.
If you were to make a Pandora Me personalized bracelet for Eleven, what would it look like?
11. Just the number. And a heart charm for Mike.
You’ve done acting, beauty, and fashion. What’s next?
I love music, but I never know what’s going on there…
When are you dropping your mixtape?
I have a few [songs], but I’m too scared! It’s so scary. There are so many people that go into the acting industry and then the music industry. I think you can do it right if you do it right. So, I don’t know. I’m waiting for that. But for me, I’m directing, producing. [That’s] the way I want to go. I like to boss people around. Just kidding.
