Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink, Finn Wolfhard, and the rest of the Stranger Things cast aren’t spending their evening in Los Angeles at the delayed 2023 Emmys ceremony. None were seen on the red carpet. The reason is simple: They aren’t up for any acting awards, and they just begun shooting the show’s last season. They shared the news on Instagram last week:
Stranger Things did get nominated in more minor categories: Outstanding Period and/pr Character Makeup (Non-Prosthetic), Outstanding Music Supervision, Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), and Outstanding Stunt Performance.
In October, Brown spoke to Glamour about being ready to finish the series. “When you’re ready, you’re like, ‘All right, let’s do this. Let’s tackle this last senior year. Let’s get out of here,’” she said. “Stranger Things takes up a lot of time to film, and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about. So I’m ready to say, ‘Thank you, and goodbye.’”
She said the show has prepared her for those next projects, because it gave her “the tools and the resources to be a better actor.” Her friendships with the cast will remain after it finishes, so she isn’t mourning the last season either: “When it ends, I’m going to be able to still see these people.”
Brown also addressed why she feels so protective of child actors and what it was like to grow up on-screen in the series. “You cannot speak on children that are underage,” she said. “I mean, our brains physically have not grown yet. To diminish and practically stunt someone’s growth mentally, strip them down, tell them, ‘Hey, listen, you don’t look that great. Why are you wearing that? How dare you think you can wear that? How dare you say that?’”
Brown protected herself by separating her self-esteem from public opinion. “This is my life, and the only people that are allowed are the people that I open the gate for,” she said. “Other than that, everybody’s out. And yes, it’s sad. There are trust issues. And yes, I have issues with having friends. I don’t have a lot of friends. Yes, I block out a lot of people. I’m a reserved person, socially. [But] I will never let that gate open again, because everyone’s crossed it.”
