Cheyenne Suarez

Here in Hollywood: Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp on saying goodbye to ‘Stranger Things’

Article (news)

Yong Chavez

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ln4Ow1-HTu0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>On a clear Los Angeles day that’s as far removed from the overcast dread of Hawkins, Indiana as it gets, Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp sit side by side, finishing each other’s sentences the way people do when they’ve grown up together. Which, of course, they did. For nearly a decade, Stranger Things has chronicled the supernatural coming-of-age of a group of kids. Less visibly, it’s also documented the real one happening just off-camera.</p><div><br/></div><p>In Season 5, Eleven is once again tasked with saving the world. Brown, meanwhile, is 21, married, and talking about life with the ease of someone who’s already lived several versions of it. Schnapp is all grown up, too. Even if his straw-between-teeth uncapping of a green beverage before our interview was adorably child-like, the actor’s doleful eyes, when speaking about his character, seem to channel Will Byers’ quiet, interior heartbreak.</p><div><br/></div><p>I asked Brown what she’s learned from and consequently given to Eleven, and she doesn’t romanticize it. “She gave me a lot of strength and confidence,” she says, weighing the thought carefully. “But I don’t know, I haven’t given her much because I think she’s just her own thing.” Then she corrects herself. “This year, I’ve been able to give her a bit more strength in herself.” Brown smiles. “Millie has a pretty strong point of view all the time. So it’s exciting to be able to give that to Eleven.”</p><div><br/></div><p>Schnapp’s most talked-about moment in Season Four came in near silence. It was the car ride with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), hand on his mouth to keep from crying out, devastation flickering across his tear-stained face. The scene lasted seconds, Schnapp shares, but filming it took much, much longer.</p><div><br/></div><p>“It was a long day,” he says. “That scene was such a quick little beat, but that was a full day of sobbing all day. So it was an emotional day.” What lingered wasn’t exhaustion, though. I asked him how it felt to know that the scene resonated with a lot of people. “I mean, that’s the most priceless thing you can get out of it. So I’m glad that it could touch people in the way it did.”</p><div><br/></div><p>Both Brown and Schnapp came of age in public, a process that tends to warp even the steadiest sense of self. I wondered how they leaned on each other during that stretch, and Schnapp doesn’t hesitate with his answer.</p><div><br/></div><p>“I think Millie just has good, grounding advice,” he says. “Sometimes I can get lost in people’s opinions and be swayed very easily. But I always can come back to Millie and know— It’s like a North Star. This is how to be. This is who I grew up with. This is my childhood. Probably my longest relationship I have now. So just coming back to her, it’s always very centering.”</p><div><br/></div><p>“Aww, Noah,” Brown wipes her eye and reaches out to Schnapp as he talks about her, face full of sisterly affection. Noah is also the godfather to Millie’s baby.</p><div><br/></div><p>“Stay true to yourself,” he recalls Brown’s pieces of advice to him as they were growing up. “Don’t let anyone dim your light, and keep your circle small and surrounded by people you trust.”</p><div><br/></div><p>Brown laughs when it’s her turn, but her answer lands with the kind of sincerity you can’t fake. “He offers me so much,” she says. “I don’t have many friends. I could count— He’s my best friend. And I’m so proud to say that.” She pauses, then keeps going. “There is not anyone that I could go through life with where I can be fully myself, be jokey and funny and say exactly what I think and still play hide-and-seek.”</p><div><br/></div><p>I ask her to confirm if they really played hide-and-seek on set.</p><div><br/></div><p>Millie: All the time, in my house, like, weeks ago. Last year, while we were filming, he came over, we did dance parties.</p><p>Noah: We did, like, fashion shows.</p><p>Millie: In the kitchen. So, yeah.</p><div><br/></div><p>“I’m 21 and married with a baby,” she says, laughing, “but that child inside of us comes out. It is just the best feeling in the world.”</p><div><br/></div><p>Schnapp is the person, she explains, who reminds her she’s doing okay, especially on days when confidence wobbles and doubt sneaks in. “Career-wise, he pushes me, he encourages me. He gives me so much confidence when sometimes I’m like, ‘Did I do good? Did I look good here? I don’t feel great today.’” Brown shakes her head. “That person in your corner, fighting in your corner and rooting for you… I feel unstoppable when he’s by my side.” </p><div><br/></div><p>The darkness of the Upside Down, apparently, does not have any hope of existing when they’re together. But after years of monsters, mind control, and loss, it’s no surprise they’re ready for a tonal shift. Asked what they’d do together next, they answer in unison: “Rom-com.”</p><div><br/></div><p>“A rom-com together,” Brown says, leaning into the fantasy. “Where we can just be in love. Finally. They’ve been trying to keep us apart.” She laughs. “We’ll go with that.”</p><div><br/></div><p>Despite the show’s dense mythology, Brown resists the idea that Stranger Things is a blueprint for their other work. “It’s just standalone,” Brown says. “It’s its own entity. Its own IP. It’s such a different thing.”</p><div><br/></div><p>For Schnapp, the takeaway is more personal. “The show has taught me to trust your own instincts and trust yourself,” he says. As kids, he explains, they were often underestimated. “Most people — except the Duffers — looked at us like we didn’t know anything. But (the Duffers) treated us like adults and trusted us. And because of that, we were able to build this beautiful show.”</p><div><br/></div><p>Trust, it turns out, is the quiet throughline between actors and creators, between friends, between the kids they were and the adults they’re becoming. As Stranger Things barrels toward its end, Brown and Schnapp seem less preoccupied with what they’re leaving behind than with what they’ve held onto: each other, their instincts, and a childhood that still fits, just barely, between dance parties and kitchen fashion shows.</p><div><br/></div><div><em>Here in Hollywood comes out every Friday. Have a question about Hollywood celebrities? Contact Yong on Instagram: @yongchavez</em></div>

<p>“Stranger Things” stars Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp sit down with ABS-CBN News’ Yong Chavez for an interview about the Netflix series, as well as growing in the public eye, and the friendship they formed along the way.</p>

“Stranger Things” stars Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp sit down with ABS-CBN News’ Yong Chavez for an interview about the Netflix series, as well as growing in the public eye, and the friendship they formed along the way.