Millie Bobby Brown is addressing online backlash she has received for switching between a British and American accent, an experience she called “so frustrating.”
Brown, who was born in Spain to British parents, speaks naturally with a British accent. Fans began to notice, however, that she would sometimes assume an American accent in interview or other media appearances.
She opened up about why her accent goes “in and out” on Monday’s Smartless podcast, as co-host Sean Hayes put it. “I actually call it the ‘accent-gate’ because it’s so frustrating,” she said. “That was everywhere. Like for a second, everyone was talking about my accent, and they had a real problem about it.”
On its face, Brown’s dilemma is similar to backlash Alec Baldwin’s wife Hilaria Baldwin received for putting on an occasional Spanish accent in public appearances despite spending her early life in Massachusetts. At one point, Baldwin purported to have been born in Spain, prompting a viral social media sleuthing investigation into her real origin story. But Brown insists her case is not at all nefarious.
The actress, who married Jake Bongiovi last year, said one reason she slips into an American dialect is because she married into an American family. When she’s around her husband’s family, she said, “I immediately go into an American accent. But then I was just in England, and then the second I hear my mom and dad’s accent, I just go right back.”
On top of that, she said the changing accent is just part of who she is as an actress: “You want me to play these characters, but you expect me not to morph into people. What I hear is what I do. It’s all part of it.”
