AS one of Hollywood’s highest-earning actresses, Millie Bobby Brown has her pick of big-budget productions.
But she reckons British reality show The Celebrity Traitors would be the perfect platform for her secret manipulation skills — after she beat a lie-detector test.
The inquisitive actress took a polygraph with her Enola Holmes movie co-star Louis Partridge, who ended up in a real sweat as he was grilled.
But Millie, 22, remained so composed under questioning, that the machine failed to spot she was telling porkies.
The Stranger Things star, who earned nearly £20million last year, says: “I so want to be on The Traitors. I think I’d be really good.
“Do you know why? I did a lie-detector test with Louis, and Louis was sweating during the whole thing and could not lie.
“And then he said, ‘Her hands are getting cooler and she’s evading the questions’.
“Somehow, the report has come back, like, ‘She’s a pathological liar’.”
The BBC and its Traitors host Claudia Winkleman should get right on the telephone to Millie’s agent, because her appeal to young audiences is unrivalled by any other actress from these shores.
Millie, who grew up in Bournemouth, has been acting since she was nine.
For nearly a decade, she played telepathic Eleven in Strangers Things, which broke streaming records on Netflix before ending last December.
She is now back as Sherlock Holmes’ detective sister in her third Enola Holmes movie, which lands on the streaming channel today.
Millie is also working on a host of ideas, producing projects alongside her 24-year-old husband Jake Bongiovi, who is the son of rock singer Jon Bon Jovi.
The couple, who married in May 2024, have a lot on their hands.
Not only did they adopt a baby girl last summer, they also have a huge menagerie of animals at their home in Georgia — including sheep, ponies, goats, cows and ten dogs.
Some critics have questioned whether Millie was too young to adopt at the age of 21.
But she says: “I love being a young mum because I’m able to run around and chase after her.
“And I love where I’m at right now. I never was the kind of girl to be, like, out on the town, you know? So it wasn’t just in my nature. I love living on my farm. I love sewing.”
Having missed out on a normal childhood because she grew up on sets with “men over 40 years old” talking about “grips” and “ladders”, Millie was not the most outgoing teenager.
But that has all changed since she met Jake.
Millie explains: “I can’t talk about, you know, ‘Oh my God, what bars do you like around this area?’. I lack a little bit of that.
“When I met my husband, he’s the most social butterfly, the complete opposite of me. I really tried to lean more into that.”
A lot of Millie’s time, though, is spent watching the telly at home — where ITV’s Love Island is her guilty pleasure. Although Jake is not so keen on the dating show.
She says: “Love Island. He’s like, ‘Millie, I don’t care about these people’. And I’m like, ‘Well, I do. And they just broke up’.
“Yeah, I’m a reality TV snob. I mean, I just watch every show out there.”
Film buff Jake would rather go to the cinema to watch a movie, but parenthood now makes nights out a bit tricky.
And Millie says she usually nods off if she settles down in front of a movie.
She reveals: “I have to have a coffee because I typically fall asleep. It’s not because of the film, it’s because I’m tired. I’m a mum.”
Even though she is still only 22, Millie is now almost a showbusiness veteran, having been in the industry for 13 years.
She is able to call on a host of big names for advice, including Top Gun and Mission Impossible megastar Tom Cruise.
Millie is also close to many of the actors she has appeared with on screen, including Winona Ryder, Matthew Modine and David Harbour who are her Stranger Things co-stars.
There is also Helena Bonham Carter, who is her character’s mum in Enola Holmes.
Millie says: “Winona will text every four months, but the longest message ever. However, Helena Bonham Carter, she is there for me whenever I need her, and I’m very, very grateful to her.
“Matthew Modine, my godfather. He officiated my wedding.”
Tom Cruise is also only ever a phone call away. Millie says: “I’m very lucky to call him my friend.”
Now, she is paying back the support she has received from industry greats by helping to mentor young talent.
Owen Cooper, 16, was thrust into the limelight when his debut performance in Netflix drama Adolescence led to a string of awards, including an Emmy last year.
Millie says: “He has my number, anytime he needs me, has any questions. He texts me, he’s like, ‘Hey, am I doing this magazine? Is this, like, one I should do?’.
“And I’m like, ‘Owen, do what makes you happy. If you’re not tired, do it. But if you’re tired, don’t do it.
“‘Don’t run yourself into the ground and listen to your parents and just enjoy it. But don’t push yourself’.”
Reports emerged at the end of last year about a claimed fall-out between Millie and David Harbour.
It was alleged that she had filed a bullying and harassment claim against the 51-year-old actor, who played her adoptive father in Stranger Things.
But there is no sign of tension in Millie’s interview to promote Enola Holmes 3, where she speaks warmly about David.
She says: “I’m very lucky. David Harbour’s a great person. I like to talk to him.”
The duo are teaming up again for a Netflix TV series, where David is a former FBI agent reunited with his daughter, played by Millie.
The actress insists the untitled project, which will be written by Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne, is “concrete”.
Millie adds: “The schedule is insane and it’s just placing things in the right place for my time and my schedule. But the David Harbour project is sooner than expected, I think.”
Most recently, Millie filmed a romantic comedy called Just Picture It and has written a book about her grandmother’s World War Two stories, called Nineteen Steps.
Whatever she is doing, the young actress and producer will make sure that everyone is comfortable with the working environment.
Discussing the main rules on set, the Gen Z icon says: “I don’t tolerate any bullying. I don’t tolerate any negativity.
“I have been in situations like that before and I only tolerate positivity, love, friendship, kindness, trust, communication.
“And I just will stop people in their tracks if I see that.
“I’ll just take them to the side and be, ‘This isn’t working’.
“I’ll just take them to the side and be, ‘This isn’t working’. We’re playing pretend, for goodness sake. My daughter plays pretend. This is meant to be fun.
“You know, let’s not yell or be upset or dwell on something that’s very, very small and minor.”
Years in showbiz, which is often unforgiving, has clearly taught Millie how to cope with relentless negativity.
The hatred she has experienced online led her to delete her social media in 2021 and leave someone else to deal with her digital output.
She explains: “I needed to hire someone for my mental health to take care of it for me.”
There is no escaping the trolls, though, and last year she called for the cruel comments about her appearance to stop.
There were dumb remarks online about her appearing to be aged 35 or 40.
Afterwards, Little Britain creator Matt Lucas apologised for posting, “No but, yeah but” — the catchphrase of TV “chav” Vicky Pollard — next to an image of Millie in a pink tracksuit top.
He admitted it was a misplaced gag.
Fortunately, Millie is now able to laugh off those brickbats, intended or not.
She says with a smile: “If you Google it, everybody says I look like a 50-year-old. And honestly, I am here for that.
“My mum looks amazing for 50. Gosh, I feel very much 22.”
Let’s all hope that is the truth, and that Millie has the youthful energy to keep up her incredible output on screen.
And with any luck, we will see her plotting away in a cloak inside a Scottish castle very soon.
- Enola Holmes 3 is streaming on Netflix from today.