'Stranger Things' star Matthew Modine said he did 'everything I could' to protect Millie Bobby Brown from being 'destroyed' by fame
Matthew Modine and Millie Bobby Brown's "Stranger Things" characters, Dr. Brenner and Eleven, have a close but fraught relationship.
Noam Galai/Getty Images; Angela Weiss/Getty Images
- Matthew Modine said that he felt "protective" of "Stranger Things" costar Millie Bobby Brown.
- The pair were early scene partners on the show as Eleven and Dr. Brenner.
- Modine said that he tried to help Brown set her expectations for fame and her career.
Matthew Modine said that he wanted to protect Millie Bobby Brown as much as he possibly could after she became globally famous at a young age.
Modine plays Dr. Brenner on "Stranger Things," a complicated father figure to Brown's character Eleven who she sometimes calls "Papa." The pair were early scene partners on the show, and Modine previously told Vulture that all he wanted during the first season was to help her "succeed" in her role.
Speaking on "The Jonathan Ross Show" in an episode set to air on Saturday, November 19, Modine said that outside of his and Brown's on-screen relationship, he felt "protective" of her and worked to set her expectations for fame.
Netflix
"Over the course of my career, the young actors and actresses whose lives were destroyed by that kind of fame and money and everything. It can be very destructive and disorienting," Modine said. "I just wanted to do everything I could to make sure she was safe and she understood that a career is a roller coaster, that there's ups and downs to it."
Other members of the adult "Stranger Things" cast have expressed their worries for the show's young stars, including Brown, in the past. Matt and Ross Duffer, the "Stranger Things" showrunners, told Harper's Bazaar that Winona Ryder, who made her film debut at age 15, helped Brown and the rest of the cast work through the pressure of celebrity at a young age. David Harbour also told the Los Angeles Times' "The Envelope" podcast that he wasn't sure his younger costars would ever know what it was like to lead normal lives.
Brown herself told Allure for its September cover that it was difficult to sustain online harassment as a young star, with the publication reporting that she had sought therapy to deal with the "constant bullying."
"It's really hard to be hated on when you don't know who you are yet," she told the publication. "So it's like, 'What do they hate about me? 'Cause I don't know who I am.'"