From Bournemouth to Beverly Hills
She’s the 13-year-old British school girl who’s electrifying Hollywood — thanks to her precocious talent and parents ready to sacrifice EVERYTHING to help her make it
SHE’S only 13 and still needs the comfort of a nightlight to drift off to sleep. Yet Millie Bobby Brown is hollywood’s latest phenomenon. And she got there using just 246 words.
That’s the sum total of lines the British actress uttered in the first season of Stranger Things, the hit TV show that triumphed at the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, beating The Crown to win Best Ensemble in A Drama Series.
Though the cast of the sci-fi — about supernatural events in a small town in indiana — is led by Winona Ryder, the small, but feisty Miss Brown steals the show as Eleven, a shavenheaded waif who escapes a sinister research facility.
Miss Brown — who only 18 months ago quit hollywood to return to Bournemouth — has been startled by her own success. her former teacher told the Mail that Millie’s path to glory started at a small primary school in Bournemouth.
Gemma hill, a teacher at Pokesdown Primary School, recalled the ‘ lovely, bright, bubbly’ five- year- old who performed in a nativity play and, later, in a school talent show.
‘Even at five years old she was happy to stand up on a stage singing in front of 450 people. She always had that natural confidence. She was brilliant, she looked like a little star.’
Ms hill went on to home tutor Millie and taught her as recently as last summer.
‘Fame hasn’t changed her,’ says Ms hill. ‘ She’s very grounded and still the same charming, honest, kind girl i remember.’
however, as a family friend revealed this week, for all Millie’s talent, it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing at the top.
While filming Stranger Things, Millie had a few tough moments.
‘She’s really down to earth and a lovely girl. it’s a shame she had a couple of issues with some of the other children on the cast,’ said the friend. ‘She felt a bit left out, probably because she’s the only girl. But her father is super protective of her.’
Friends say while Millie is very much a daddy’s girl, every member of her family has made sacrifices for her success.
her older siblings — Paige, 23, and Charley, 18 — have spent years travelling the world, finally moving to Los Angeles for the sake of Millie’s career.
it led to the family almost going bankrupt.
The Browns are, however, united behind Millie. in months, she has gone from being an unknown to an international star with 1.25 million followers on instagram, fans queuing to meet her at conventions and dancing on stage at last year’s Emmys.
not only does Millie have the new season of Stranger Things to film, but she has been unveiled as the new face of Calvin klein, the youngest model to front a campaign for the brand.
A collaboration with Louis Vuitton is rumoured, and Millie was on the front row at Coach at new York Fashion Week. Comparisons have been made with harry Potter star Emma Watson, who also combined acting and a passion for fashion at an early age.
Millie’s first feature film role has been announced — Godzilla: king Of The Monsters, a big budget sequel to 2014’s Godzilla. She will reportedly be paid £1 million, but will soon be able to command three times that.
Millie’s spent recent weeks appearing on the big U.S. chat shows, being charming, perky and just a little precocious in her bright red lipstick and cheeky glances at the camera.
however, Millie, who is just 4 ft 10 in, acts her age in other ways, excitedly posting pictures on social media of herself with famous people.
She even met Barack Obama at the White house (he is a fan of Stranger Things).
But her success was by no means guaranteed. The third child of Robert, an estate agent, and kelly Brown, Millie was born in Marbella shortly after her parents moved to Spain.
When Millie was four, the estate agents for which Robert worked went bust and the family moved to Bournemouth.
her father recalls that she was obsessed with musicals. ‘She’d belt out a tune. She was performing from day one.’
When Millie was eight, the family moved to Orlando, Florida, to set up a teethwhitening business.
When Millie was being bothersome one day, her father suggested acting lessons. She started spending four hours every weekend at stage school, where an agent decided she was a ‘natural’, urging her to move to LA for a chance of success.
The family agreed and in an astonishing act of faith sold up and moved the family, complete with dog, to Los Angeles.
The parents of child actors wanting to make it in hollywood often suffer, and the Browns’ finances became so stretched that Millie’s British- born manager, Melanie Greene, had to lend them money.
‘There were times we didn’t know if we could afford food or pay rent,’ says Millie. ‘it was very hard. There were lots of tears.’
it proved too tough for Milllie’s older sister Paige, who returned to the Uk. ‘She didn’t want to do it [America]. it was tears, tears, tears,’ says her sister.
Millie won small parts in TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy. Still, a breakthrough role eluded her. As work dried up, Millie said she felt ‘devastated’.
in summer 2015, the money ran out and the Browns returned to Dorset, so penniless they had to move in with Millie’s aunt.
When a British casting agent told her she was ‘too mature’, Millie burst into tears. That same day, she auditioned for Stranger Things in London.
her already raw emotions helped enormously, she believes, when she was asked to cry as part of the audition.
She got the part and weeks later the family was in Atlanta, Georgia, where the TV series was filmed. MILLIE says the directors told her they wanted her to ‘resemble ET’. There are certainly similarities as, like Spielberg’s alien, she is protected by a gang of boys.
Millie describes the trio as her ‘big brothers’, but admits they ‘annoy’ her, adding: ‘it’s difficult because they’re boys and they talk about boy stuff.’
now, Millie lives mostly in LA, where — as one might hope after they sacrificed so much for her success — the Millie Bobby Brown business remains a family affair. her social media accounts are run by relatives; her dad helps her practise her lines; and her mother chooses her clothes, making sure Millie dresses appropriately for her age.
keeping it in the family has had the odd hiccup, however. her father raised eyebrows in October when he demanded an upfront fee — reportedly $100,000 — from any agent wanting to represent Millie.
‘Parents of child stars have been making A-list demands since the days of Shirley Temple,’ sniffed the hollywood Reporter, adding that this one took it ‘to a whole new level’.
A spokesman said he had been wrongly advised by someone who had suggested it ‘in jest’. The demand was quietly dropped.
Even by hollywood standards, Millie has a reputation as fiercely driven, freely admitting she’s never happier than when on set.
Finding fame so quickly has been the ruin of many. But Millie — with her hordes of followers, work ethic and devoted family — is off to an impressive start.