The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Damsel star and executive producer, Millie Bobby Brown.
During her conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Brown revisits “breaking out” in Hollywood with
Stranger Things
, discusses how
Damsel
redefined her collaboration with film crews, and loads more.

Damsel
is now available to stream on Netflix.

There is no doubt that this will be the first of many Collider Ladies Night interviews for Millie Bobby Brown. Not only has her acting career been soaring ever since the debut of Stranger Things back in 2016, but Brown is also using her rising start to influence certain projects for the better as a producer. She kicked off the Enola Holmes film series at Netflix wearing both hats, and now she stars in and executive produces her latest ambitious release for the streamer, Damsel.

Brown headlines the film as Elodie, a young woman who agrees to marry a handsome prince (Nick Robinson) in hopes that his kingdom’s riches will help her family’s struggling people. However, nearly immediately after the two are wed, Elodie discovers the truth behind their union; his family is using her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. She’s thrown into a cave with a dragon, kicking off a story that subverts the traditional damsel in distress narrative. There is no savior. It’s up to Elodie to save herself.

Damsel Damsel sees Millie Bobby Brown as a dutiful, well, damsel, who agrees to marry a handsome prince — only to discover it was all a trap: The royal family recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. She’s then thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, relying solely on her wits and will to survive.Release Date March 8, 2024 Runtime 85 minutes Main Genre Fantasy Studio Netflix

‘Stranger Things’ Reshaped Millie Bobby Brown’s Perception of Rejection in Hollywood
Image via Netflix

Related ‘Stranger Things’ Star Sadie Sink Details Her Journey from Broadway Dreams to Facing Off Against Vecna in “Dear Billy” Sink also discusses how Max’s Vecna encounter changes the character moving forward.

During our Collider Ladies Night conversation in celebration of Damsel’s March 8th release on Netflix, Brown took a moment to look back on Stranger Things’ big debut, a moment in her career that changed everything. In particular, it heavily impacted how Brown viewed rejection in film and television, and also the amount of rejection she would need to power through moving forward. She explained:

“When you are auditioning as much as I did and the other kids on the show did, it is so hard growing up with rejection. It is such a formative part of your life, right? Growing up, you know, when you go to school,
anyone
that rejects you, it takes its toll on you after a while. And as an adult, you know yourself and you maybe have thicker skin and you’re able to adapt, but as a child, it’s really hard. And I think for me, to just stop at least being rejected and to be like, ‘You know what? One, I have an opportunity and I’m going to take it or I’m
not
going to take it,’ and to accept the fact that rejection will come and go in different forms and ways growing up and living, it helped me accept that more, and that helped me for the better because
I was
so
terrified of people saying no to me. And then the second I got
Stranger Things
, I was like, ‘Maybe that’s okay, and maybe even
I
can say no.’
And I think that helped me.”

Brown also credits Stranger Things and the role of Eleven with shaping her into the woman and the artist she is today. That and the experience of working on Enola Holmes have made her an especially formidable creative force in Hollywood.

“There’s a sense of Eleven being super influential for me just as a person, but also as an actor. It taught me a lot about how to be an actor. Enola, though, taught me the kinds of roles I wanna play. So I think they’re split in that because Eleven really shaped me into a woman and she really shaped me into the kind of actor I want to be, but Enola told me the stories that I want to tell.”

Image via Netflix

While Stranger Things and Enola Holmes have heavily influenced Brown as an actor and the roles she seeks out, she credits an upcoming film with redefining what she values most in an on set environment. Brown dubbed Anthony Russo and Joe Russo-directed film The Electric State as the production that most highlighted the importance of having a strong connection with her co-stars and her crew.

“
There was something about my future movie,
Electric State
, that’s coming out, that on set environment I just loved.
I just think that it truly set a precedent for the kinds of sets I really value. I love friendship and family and connection, and I think that’s really, really important on any set because you’re together all the time. I’m with that crew more than I am with my family, with my fiancé. I’m
constantly
with that crew. They become friends. And as much as you have to maintain a super professional relationship, of course they see you break down and they see you laugh and they see you mess up and you have to be vulnerable. You have to open yourself up and be willing to make mistakes, and they see all of that. They are your audience for however long you’re filming, and so there’s naturally a very good connection there. So I think, for me, that is the most important thing, is having a really good connection with your crew.”

Millie Bobby Browns’ Favorite and Least Favorite Things About Acting

In addition to Stranger Things and Enola Holmes setting a solid foundation and values for her career, and then The Electric State bolstering them, Brown also rocks a tireless work ethic and boundless ambition all on her own — qualities that will undoubtedly open the door to limitless possibilities for her as an artist. While pinpointing her favorite part of the acting process during a round of Dicey Questions, Brown noted:

“I love when it’s really challenging, like something to do with whether, something to do with wind, when it’s raining or we’re working in the desert. I love anything to do that’s really challenging that you’re fighting.
I love when we fight for the light, you know? Like the light’s going out and we all have to work really fast.
Those moments of putting everyone under pressure and seeing if we crack, and we don’t, I love that.”

Brown was also quite frank about her least favorite parts of the acting process. She came up with two answers and both further highlight her eagerness and passion for doing the work.

“One, read-throughs.
I hate read-throughs. I get it, why we do it, but it’s so boring.
In a read-through you have to contain yourself. You know, you just have to read the script and just read it out loud. I want to act and I can’t because there’s 40 people just reading it regularly and I want to be like, [gestures big], and do my [thing]. And so I feel like it’s just trapping me and I don’t like it. I’m like, ‘Let’s just go on set and do it right now.’ And then the second thing is, I really hate getting dressed. I really do. It is so boring. I wish, and I always say this, that I could just click my hands and I’m ready. But I can’t! Some people are like, ‘I love the process of getting ready,’ and I hate it because my brain is in the character and I just want me to look like the character and I’m ready to go.”

Millie Bobby Brown Didn’t Think She Could Pull Off One Particular Scene in ‘Damsel’
Image via Netflix

When you see Damsel, it’ll be abundantly clear that the project demanded a star who was ready to go and willing to give 110% to the hugely demanding role. Not only is a significant amount of the movie solely focused on Brown and Brown alone, but all of that material involves wildly challenging emotional and physical performance beats.

Brown always comes across as a fearless actor, but there was one scene in particular in Damsel that she worried she just plain old couldn’t do. She explained:

“It’s the scene where I literally look like I’m in an air conditioning vent and I’m crawling through it. That, for me, reading it on paper, it made me so anxious because I’m claustrophobic.
Every day that it came close to it, I just, like, felt sick. And then I went on to set and I said, ‘I can’t do it. I’m sorry.’
And then we came back a week later and they were like, ‘We changed it a little bit!’ And I came back and nothing was changed, and I was like, ‘Okay?’ And then I climbed in and I did it. I think for me that showed there’s no limitations to what I can do just as a person, right? It’s just like, ‘I
can
get through this.’ My mum’s always like, ‘Mind over matter. Mind over matter.’ I truly had to tell my brain, ‘You can’t prohibit me from doing something that I need to do,’ which was really impactful for me as a person.”

In addition to bolstering her confidence in herself, Damsel also further strengthened Brown’s appreciation for collaborating with a film crew. Given much of the movie is just Elodie navigating the caves, I asked what she learned about being her own best scene partner when doing solo scenes. Rather than focus on self, she spotlighted the importance of her connection with the crew.

“
It changed my perception on the crew because I always thought, ‘Okay, there’s the crew and then there’s the cast, right?’ But no, everyone on that film was my co-star.
When I was working alone, the guy that was filming, our cameraman, was my co-star, and the guy who put my mark down was my co-star, and the guy who was lighting me from the left and the guy who’s blowing wind on the right was my co-star. The guy who fiddled with my sound mic and made sure they could hear me screaming, they were my co-stars. And I think, for me, it changed my perception of how significant the crew are to making films. I was working
with
them, not for them. I think that that really changed my perception of the cast and the crew.”

Eager to hear more from Brown on Damsel and her journey in Hollywood thus far? You can catch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the Ladies Night interview in podcast form below:

Damsel is available to stream on Netflix globally.

Watch on Netflix