HOLMES IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Stranger Things star on bringing detective story to life for Netflix and why she’s eager to give young girls an action star they can aspire to
NOT even a car crash could keep Hollywood whirlwind Millie Bobby Brown from making her debut as a producer. At just 16, the Stranger Things star has become Hollywood’s youngest producer with Netflix film Enola Holmes.
As part of her new job, she got to sit in on auditions – but was involved in a car crash and they had to be postponed.
She said: “I got into a little bit of a kerfuffle a few days before auditions. Nothing crazy, I just had a small car accident.
“Then we did it again and I got stuck in really bad traffic, so turned up to the auditions all hot and bothered because it was summer in London.
“It was a little bit crazy, especially when I met Louis Partridge (who plays the young Lord Tewksbury) because I wanted to make a good impression and I wanted him to like me. His mum was there, so it was even more terrifying. I felt like I was meeting the parents already.”
The film is adapted from the book by Nancy Springer, whose heroine, Enola is the younger and equally talented sister of the iconic fictitious detective Sherlock Holmes.
Millie read the book a few years ago and helped get the film on track.
She said: “It feels like my baby. It’s something I have been talking about for several years so it’s amazing to see it come to fruition.”
The young actress hopes Enola will inspire younger girls as she is the kind of character she missed seeing on the screen in her childhood.
The Spanish-born Brit actress said: “Growing up, I didn’t have a young female British lead to look up to. If I did have an inspiration, it was Hannah Montana. But she was American and didn’t sound like I did. So it was kind of disappointing.
“There was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter but she wasn’t the lead.
“So reading this book, I thought, ‘So many young girls are going to love Enola as much as I do’. That’s what kind of drew me towards the character because I wanted someone like her growing up.”
Millie has become something of an inspiration herself.
Hollywood’s youngest producer joins other firsts including being the youngest person to be appointed a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador and to feature on Time 100 list. She was 14 when she was named one of the world’s most influential people.
Millie was just 12 when she played Eleven in the sci-fi horror Stranger Things and has gone on to make her film debut last year in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and will star in the sequel Godzilla vs Kong, which will now be in cinemas next May because of Covid.
Millie has packed a lot in already – but insists she’s just like every other teen on the planet.
She said: “I have grown up a little bit faster than the average 16-year-old but a lot of teenagers are growing up faster than usual because of social media and things like that.”
Enola Holmes is set in a period when women’s suffrage movement is taking shape in England. The damsel-indistress stereotype is turned on its head as she saves Lord Viscount Tewksbury, played by Louis, who has run away.
Millie, whose Eleven in Stranger Things is usually the one saving the day, said: “You always watch films where the
men save the woman. Here, Enola is saving him. He’s in danger. She’s physically able to save him. Why not? I think that’s what makes her a true superhero.”
Of course, Enola isn’t the only superhero in the Holmes household. Superman star Henry Cavill plays Sherlock, while Sam Claflin plays Mycroft. Helena Bonham Carter is their mother Eudoria, who disappears on Enola’s 16th birthday.
Despite her brothers’ disapproval, the amateur detective is soon on the case of her mother.
Millie added: “She’s also trying to find herself after being smothered by her really famous last name. All of her family has some type of purpose, especially Sherlock, but she doesn’t yet.”
Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer has brought the element of breaking the fourth wall from the hit dark comedy, fronted by its creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge to the film.
Millie also has lots of action scenes but luckily had trained in boxing before making Stranger Things – where her classmates all thought she was a boy.
For Enola Holmes, Millie said: “I went to a class for it every day for a long time for Stranger Things. I had a shaved head and everybody was like, ‘That’s a boy’.
“I didn’t want to explain why I had a shaved head, so I went along with it.”
Lockdown meant shooting for the fourth series of Stranger Things had to be suspended, although there are reports production will restart this month in Georgia. A trailer set in Russia showed David Harbour’s Jim Hopper alive.
Millie certainly isn’t saying anything: “They give you this paper and pen and make you sign something that says, ‘Don’t open your mouth about anything’.
“Let’s just trust the fact it is going to be strange and excellent, like it is every season. I hope to get back to work soon and I’m very excited to play Eleven again.”
Enola Holmes is on Netflix now.