Millie Bobby Brown turned 13 years old earlier this year and, though she's young, she has already landed a starring role on Netflix's hit sci-fi series Stranger Things, modeled for Calvin Klein, and been nominated for an Emmy. Yet, none of those wildly impressive achievements seem to feel all that strange for her.
Instead, she says one of the stranger things that has happened to her during this year of fast fame is being interviewed by Drew Barrymore for Teen Vogue’s Icons issue out this month. And, reading the conversation between a child star and a former child star, both of whom got their start in science fiction hits, we can see why she might say that.
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At the start of the interview with this month's Teen Vogue cover star, Drew Barrymore explained that Stranger Things reminds her a lot of her first film E.T. Barrymore said, "Both are about the sense of family, humanity, and suburbia. And both are so grounded in relatability. And you talk about space and aliens and the improbable and the impossible." That's when things got kind of meta. Millie Bobby Brown confirmed that not only do Stranger Things and E.T. deal with similar themes, her showrunners actually referenced the 1982 movie when she was auditioning for the role of Eleven. Brown told Barrymore that, during her audition, "We talked about ’80s movies. And I didn’t know anything about Eleven at that point, and they were referencing E.T. And I was like, 'Wait, what? I’m an alien now?'"
Though it may have been strange for Millie Bobby Brown to speak to someone who got her start at a young age in a movie that Brown now uses as inspiration for her own acting career, it's pretty clear from the Teen Vogue interview that the two have a lot in common, and it's so sweet to hear them talk about their shared experiences. One area where the duo touch on their similar taste is young women's fashion. Barrymore asked, "In the last decade, younger girls have prematurely aged themselves by how they dress. I didn’t dress crazy then, but I did crazy things. You dress so appropriate for your age." Brown responded that dressing older than she is just isn't for her. She said, "I wear tons of shorts and sneakers." A desire for girls to feel free to enjoy their adolescence is something Brown and Barrymore share. And, of course, they also share a mutual respect for one another's careers, as evidenced by Barrymore's adorable endnote to the interview: "Gertie loves Eleven."