Millie Bobby Brown ‘disgusted’ by remarks about women’s looks

British actress Millie Bobby Brown has said she is “disgusted” by remarks made about her and other women’s appearances.

Earlier this month, the Stranger Things star, 21, hit out at what she called “bullying” comments and the media “dissecting my face, my body, my choices” because they think she should be “frozen in time” as a child actor.

Brown told the latest episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy that “the press love to go in on me sometimes with certain things”, pointing to her growing older and her accent changing as she lives in the US.

She said: “A thing that I get a lot is like, ‘Oh my God, she looks like 40′.

“And I’m like, you did meet me when I was 10, so I understand. Now I’m 21, it’s been 10 years. She grows. My face, like, grew. What do you want me to do about that?

“I don’t want that for anybody growing up in the industry, but it really actually doesn’t bother me.

“I wish I could be like, ‘You know what, it does get to me’. It used to get to me, it did… It got to me, and I remember trying to change myself to please the masses.

“And actually, now, I’m in a place where, yeah, my accent does change. My face does grow. I do wear a lot of make-up. It’s just the kind of person I am, I like that… you’re not going to tell me how to be a girl.”

She also said “it should never be OK, I feel like, when stuff comes out about me, or about other women, other young girls in the industry, I’m disgusted, like I can’t believe it still happens”.

“If I had a genie wish, I really would wish that no one ever had to go through that kind of scrutiny because it changes the kind of person you are, it changes the way you perceive the world,” Brown added.

“You see the bad in everyone, you don’t see the good. You’re like, ‘What are your intentions, what are you going to say about me?’

“And I think the press need to be taught manners again, 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, and ultimately, the standards and… stigmas against girls, it’s ridiculous, especially, I feel, in Hollywood.”

Earlier this month, comedian Matt Lucas apologised to Brown for writing the phrase “no but yeah but” – used by delinquent teenager Vicky Pollard in his comedy show Little Britain – above pictures of the actress, in reference to her earrings.

Lucas wrote on social media: “I thought you looked terrific and I was mortified when the press wrote that I ‘slammed’ you, firstly because that’s not my style, and secondly because I think you’re brilliant.

“I would not have posted it if I had thought it would have upset you but I realise it has and for that I apologise.”

In an Instagram post this month, Brown quoted headlines from articles, including references to Lucas’s X comments, which she said were “amplifying an insult rather than questioning why a grown man is mocking a young woman’s appearance”.

She also wrote: “Disillusioned people can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman on her terms, not theirs. I refuse to apologise for growing up. I refuse to make myself smaller to fit the unrealistic expectations of people who can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman.”

Brown, who married Jake Bongiovi, the son of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, last year, has been promoting new Netflix film The Electric State, in which she stars alongside Chris Pratt.

She has also recently finished filming the fifth series of hit Netflix science fiction series Stranger Things, which has seen her play superpowered teenager Eleven since 2016, with the final season due out this year.

Since her breakout role, Brown landed the title part as mystery-solving sleuth Sherlock Holmes’s sister Enola Holmes in the 2020 Netflix film and its sequel two years later.