‘Enola Holmes’ Star Millie Bobby Brown Opens Up About Being Food-Shamed on the ‘Stranger Things’ Set

Millie Bobby Brown is looking back at some funny moments from her time filming Stranger Things, and one of them involved something much simpler than fighting monsters from the Upside Down. The actress recently revealed that her American co-stars often questioned the meals she brought to set because they were unfamiliar with some classic British comfort foods.

During an appearance on Hot Ones, Brown explained that her eating habits became a source of jokes among the Stranger Things cast. The actress, who played Eleven across all five seasons of the Netflix hit series, said her co-stars were often confused by the food she would bring from home.

“When I was on Stranger Things, I used to get food-shamed a lot,” Brown said. She explained that the reaction usually came from her American castmates, who were surprised by her traditional British meals.

“When I would go on, they’d be all American, and they’d be like, ‘Mate, what the f** are you eating?’”* she recalled.

The main target of their confusion was one of Brown’s favorite simple meals: a jacket potato, which is a baked potato usually served with toppings such as beans and cheese. While the dish is common in the U.K., Brown said her American co-stars found it unusual. “They were like, ‘It’s like you live in the 1800s and you found some, like, speciality. It’s, like, wrapped in tinfoil,’” Brown said.

Because of their reactions, Brown joked that she sometimes had to find a quiet place to eat her food without being questioned. She laughed while explaining that her castmates could not understand why she was eating something so basic. “They’d be like, ‘What is that?’ And I was just like, ‘It’s a jacket potato with beans and cheese. It’s nothing.’”

According to Brown, the reaction was completely different when she worked on projects in the United Kingdom. Instead of being questioned, her British co-workers immediately recognized the meal and appreciated it. “So they didn’t get it,” Brown said about her Stranger Things castmates. “But when I go on set in England, everyone’s like, ‘Having a jacket! Lovely!’”

The actress spent years working alongside the Stranger Things cast, including Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Maya Hawke, Joe Keery, David Harbour, and Winona Ryder. The series became one of Netflix’s biggest shows and recently wrapped up its final season after nearly a decade of popularity.

Brown’s comments come as she continues to reflect on her career after Stranger Things. She has moved on to other projects and has also started a new chapter in her personal life, living on a farm in Georgia with her husband Jake Bongiovi and their daughter.

Even though she now lives in the United States, Brown still enjoys the British dishes she grew up with. She previously joked that her mother’s cooking is mostly centered around spaghetti bolognese, or “spag bol,” which remains one of her favorite comfort foods.

“For 50 years, I’m just gonna have a recipe book of varieties of spag bols,” Brown joked, while adding that her mother’s version is still the one she enjoys the most.

While her Stranger Things co-stars may not have understood her British food choices at first, Brown’s story shows that even small cultural differences can create some of the funniest memories between friends.

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