At 10, actress Millie Bobby Brown was told she was 'too mature' to succeed in films and television
At 18, Millie Bobby Brown, who appears in Stranger Things (2016 to present), is already an accomplished actress with multiple Emmy Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations.
But when she was not even close to her teens, she was - too mature?
In a recent interview with Allure Magazine, the young Briton said a powerful casting director once told her she would not make it in the industry.
This was because the 10-year-old was "too mature".
"(Hearing that) was really hard because I thought (maturity) was a good thing. And then being told that it wasn't, that I wouldn't make it in this industry, it was so hurtful," Brown said, adding that the comment left her in tears.
Fortunately for her, her next audition was for Stranger Things, which quickly became one of Netflix's most popular television series on its release in 2016.
In 2018, she also became the youngest person ever to be named to Time Magazine's Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.
In the interview, she also spoke out about an "unhealthy" situation she found herself in with American TikTok influencer Hunter Ecimovic about two years ago.
Ecimovic - who is four years older than Brown - had last year claimed on the platform that he "groomed" her, and started a relationship with her when she was just 16 years old.
Brown called his comments "humiliating", but added that she had managed to extricate herself from the situation by that point. "Walking away and knowing that I'm worth everything and this person didn't take anything from me, it felt very empowering."
The Spanish-born actress is hopeful that other young women will be able to learn from her struggles, and not just fixate on her successes.
"Ultimately, all I wanted to do within my career is help young girls and young people out there know that I, too, go through things. I'm not this perfect person that is selling skin-care products and in Stranger Things. I absolutely have made wrong decisions," she noted.
Her next film, Enola Holmes 2, is expected to land on Netflix later this year, with Brown playing the titular girl detective in addition to serving as producer.
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