Millie Bobby Brown is firing back at her critics again, this time explaining that there’s no way she’d look the same as she did when she played “Eleven” on Stranger Things at 10 years old.
“People say that I look a lot older—that’s a thing that I get a lot is like, ‘Oh my God, she looks like 40,’” the now 21-year-old Brown told host Alex Cooper on a new episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast released Wednesday. “I’m like, well, yeah, you did meet me when I was 10,” in Stranger Things, she continued, “Now I’m 21, it’s been 10 years. She grows. My face grew! I don’t know, what do you want me to do about that?”
The actress has been vocal about public critiques of her appearance, including in an Instagram video calling out specific comments she found “disturbing.” “This isn’t journalism. This is bullying,” she said at the time. “The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices, is disturbing, and the fact that some of these articles are written by women makes it even worse.”
It hasn’t just been her looks that the star has faced criticism for, she said on Call Her Daddy. It’s “that and my accent thing,” she said, speaking in a British accent during the interview. Fans called out that her accent oscillates between American and British—but Brown said on the Smartless podcast that it’s all part of being an actor: “You want me to play these characters, but you expect me not to morph into people.”
In her sit down with Cooper, Brown said the problem is that a woman’s appearance is considered news fodder in the first place. “The press just need to be taught manners again,” she said. “I think they need to go back to school and learn how to speak to people, be kind and just understand that we’re all growing people, we all make mistakes. Ultimately, the standards and stigmas against girls, it’s ridiculous.”
Brown also appeared on the Tonight Show Tuesday, where she explained why she decided to address these criticisms now. “I kind of kept making excuses, like it’s just not the right time or I shouldn’t” call it out, she said, recalling she thought that “‘People are going to respond badly.’”
“And then I realized, I just keep making excuses because I’m afraid,” she told Jimmy Fallon. “And when is the right time for a woman to stand up for herself? And actually, I can’t wait any longer.”
