Teen keeps a cool head
Millie Bobby Brown received some negative attention after she shaved her head for her Stranger Things’ role.
The teenage actress is famous for playing Eleven on the Netflix show, and her impressive portrayal has earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for her work, as well as a place on the 2018 TIME 100 list, making her the youngest person ever to feature. When she was 11, Brown was required to shave her head for the coveted role and has now admitted in an interview with W magazine that she struggled with the new look when she was away from the Stranger Things’ set.
“The shaved head was a big deal,” the 14-year-old admitted. “On the one hand, it was cool. When you’re bald, rain feels like a head massage. I’d walk in the rain, and people would look at me like I was crazy. I’d be smiling — so, so happy to have the water hit my naked head. But on the other hand, people stared at me, wondering whether I was sick. Some would even laugh at me, without knowing whether I was or wasn’t sick.”
Though the Calvin Klein model was saddened by such “hurtful” behaviour from strangers, she has no regrets and believes the experience helped make her a more compassionate person.
“It was hurtful, but their attitude taught me something about compassion. In the end, being bald was the best thing I ever did — being different changed my life. I wanted to embrace my baldness and, hopefully, inspire people,” she said. Brown is now a regular on the Hollywood red carpet and has partied with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Drake, who she now talks to “all the time.” But in spite of her growing celebrity, she is adamant that fame hasn’t altered her personality. “I don’t think I’ve changed. I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, I know everything now,’” the television star insisted. “I still get nervous. I still get anxious.”