Highlights
- Millie Bobby Brown said finishing Stranger Things left her feeling emotionally overwhelmed.
- The actress recalled apologising to her co-stars in an effort to preserve their friendships.
- Brown also reflected on her close bond with the cast after spending a decade on the hit Netflix series.
Millie Bobby Brown has opened up about the emotional toll of saying goodbye to Stranger Things, revealing that she worried her relationships with her co-stars would fade once filming ended.
Speaking during a live recording of Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast in New York, the actress said the end of the long-running Netflix series left her feeling unexpectedly low and prompted her to reach out to fellow cast members in an effort to keep their friendships intact.
'We're still friends, right?'
Brown admitted she experienced what she described as "a slight depression" after wrapping the final season of Stranger Things.
The actress said she found herself apologising to co-stars including David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Winona Ryder, hoping to ensure there were no unresolved issues between them.
"I was like, 'We're still friends, right? Like, you're not gonna stop talking to me anymore?'" Brown recalled.
She added that she apologised if she had ever upset anyone, explaining that after spending 10 years together, she wanted them to remain close. "You're my sibling," she remembered telling them.
Leaving Eleven behind was harder than expected
Brown said the emotions caught her by surprise.
Although she described herself as a naturally cheerful person, she recalled sitting alone on a beach and crying after production wrapped.
The actress said playing Eleven had become inseparable from her own life, having taken on the role at the age of 10.
"I started the show when I was 10, and this character was me," Brown said, adding that she spent more time with the cast than she did having dinner with her own family.
She admitted saying goodbye to both the character and the people she grew up with was one of the hardest parts of ending the series.
David Harbour addresses reported tension
Brown's comments come weeks after David Harbour spoke publicly about reports of tension between the pair during the making of the show's final season.
Earlier this month, Harbour acknowledged that there had been disagreements but compared them to arguments within a family.
He said other people became involved before he and Brown eventually spoke privately and resolved the situation.
"Everyone nowadays is very scared of talking about things," Harbour said, adding that they "adore each other and always have."
A decade that shaped her life
Running from 2016 to 2025, Stranger Things became one of Netflix's biggest global hits and transformed Brown into an international star.
Looking back on the experience, the actress said no one could truly understand what it was like to grow up alongside the cast and crew.
For Brown, the end of the series marked more than the conclusion of a television show—it was the end of a chapter that had defined much of her childhood and early adulthood.
