It turns out that Millie Bobby Brown isn’t actually the “Stranger Things” breakout star’s real name. But it is close.
The 21-year-old British star this week spilled the beans about her birth name ahead of her newest Netflix film, “Electric State,” with co-star Chris Pratt. She revealed in an interview with Buzzfeed UK that her real name is just four letters away from her stage name.
“My middle name is Bonnie,” she told her co-star. “It’s Millie Bonnie Brown.”
She added: “I’ve never told anyone that. You heard it here first.”
”The Office” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” star Pratt was seemingly in disbelief at the reveal, asking his co-star, “Your middle name is Bonnie?”
Brown explained that the name change was simply for “giggles.”
Brown joins the latest cohort of Hollywood stars getting real about their real names. Last year “Poor Things” star Emma Stone and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” star Michael Keaton revealed what was behind their stage monikers.
Stone, during an interview in April with her “The Curse” co-star Nathan Fielder, said it “would be so nice” if fans used her real name: Emily. “Birdman” actor Keaton said in September that he wants to start going by his birth name: Michael Keaton Douglas. Both actors said they opted for current stage names after learning that other actors in the Screen Actors Guild had already snagged their preferred names.
So far on the press tour for “Electric State,” Brown has made headlines for more than just her real name. Earlier this week, Brown took to Instagram to shut down critics, including several journalists, who “are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices.”
“I started in this industry when I was 10 years old. I grew up in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow with me,” she said in an Instagram video. “Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time, like I should still look the way I did on ‘Stranger Things’ Season 1.”
She received support for her message from other celebrities including Sharon Stone, Mario Lopez, Lilly Singh and Octavia Spencer in the comments section. Her co-star Pratt also left a supportive message, writing “some of these journalists are sad and lonely folks.”
He added: “We’ll pray for em. You look great!! And more importantly you have a beautiful heart.”
Pratt also seemed to show support for Brown beyond social media during a recent press conference. Netizens lauded the “Jurassic World” alum as the “ultimate gentleman” after he shielded Brown, who wore a miniskirt, from the audience’s view as she got up from a chair.
Brown stars in “The Electric State” as an orphaned teenager who teams with a mustachioed smuggler portrayed by Pratt on her search for a long-lost brother across a robot-littered nation. Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Normanalso star in the film, with Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci.
“Avengers” alums Anthony Russo and Joe Russo direct “The Electric State,” which begins streaming on Netflix on March 14.
