Millie Bobby Brown's Accent Game Is Beyond Impressive
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Millie Bobby Brown is one of the most impressive young actresses in the game, and her career is only getting more and more exciting with time. Brown broke out in a big way on the pop culture scene with her incredible work as Eleven, the curious young girl who escapes from a mysterious laboratory and reveals a deadly experiment gone wild in "Stranger Things." To date, Brown has earned two Primetime Emmy nominations for her work in the show, and from there, she's continued to prove her talents with her standout work in films like the "Godzilla" series and her title turn in "Enola Holmes."
The first "Enola Holmes" pic in particular had some heads really spinning and not just because of her dizzyingly good portrayal of the pint-sized sleuth. Some fans who'd previously followed her depiction of Elle in "Stranger Things" were incredibly surprised to hear her tout a British accent in the role of Sherlock Holmes' snappy little sister, who pursues her own answers after the disappearance of her mother. What may be even more surprising, however, is the fact that her accent in the hit 2020 action-adventure film is even closer to her native tongue than the one that made her a household name. Here's a closer look at why Millie Bobby Brown's accent game is beyond impressive.
Millie Bobby Brown's auspicious audition
There's no doubt that Brown's American accent for her long-lived role as Eleven in "Stranger Things" — which takes place in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana — is completely on point. Though Elle is a young woman of few words early on in the series, when she does speak, her voice is a perfect match for the sleepy Midwestern setting of the series.
And Brown had her accent game going strong right from the start of the show. The actress was originally born in Marbella, Spain, and then spent several of her formative years in Bournemouth, England, before her family relocated to Florida. And when she tried out for the part of Elle, she wisely used a "full American accent" throughout the entire process to boost her chances of landing the part — an obviously successful move, in retrospect.
When Brown first auditioned for the part in the then-upcoming sci-fi series, she had such an impressive American dialect that she convinced the casting director it was her own natural sound. Casting director Carmen Cuba revealed to The New York Post that Brown's audition accent was so convincing that she was surprised to hear the actress bring out her natural British tones after her initial reading.
An unlikely inspiration
As young as she was during her career-making audition for "Stranger Things," Millie Bobby Brown had already been perfecting her American accent for quite some time, thanks to a surprising source of inspiration. As she told fellow actress-singer Miley Cyrus during a 2020 interview, she first learned to speak with an American sound due to her intense devotion to watching episodes of "Hannah Montana."
Not only did her adoration of the beloved Disney Channel sitcom teach her how to speak with an American accent, but Brown even admitted that it inspired her in another key way as well. The first time she realized she also wanted to become a performer was while watching Cyrus' titular character in action on the show. Brown told Cyrus, "I wanted your job, I didn't know how to get your job. ... And then I realized it was an actual job." And thus a thriving screen career for Brown began to take shape.
An amazing start
After learning to speak with an American accent and deciding she wanted to become a part of the acting world, Brown enjoyed a pretty auspicious start to her career. Her small-screen debut occurred in 2013, when she appeared as young Alice in the ABC series "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland." Her portrayal of the iconic Disney character in the pilot was so impressive that the series' showrunner, Zack Estrin, later wrote her into another episode of the series to make her role a recurring one. In the fantasy series, Brown speaks with her own British tones as she portrays the curious fairy tale character, but she also adds a layer of bubbliness and poshness to her dialogue.
For her next role starring in the BBC America drama series "Intruders," Brown impressed writer-executive producer Glen Morgan with her American sound, which she stuck to throughout her audition. "She auditioned, talked to me, everything in an American accent. And then she dropped it for a minute, and I thought, 'Whoa, what's she doing?'" What he didn't know then was that her American accent was put on and that she could also have fun with more regional sounds, like a deep Southern drawl.
From there, Brown went on to earn guest roles in other hit series, such as "Modern Family" and "Grey's Anatomy," which featured her continuing to use a very convincing American sound. By the time she nabbed the part that would change her career forevermore in "Stranger Things," Brown was already well seasoned in switching between her American and British accents with complete ease.
An unexpected challenge
In 2016, Brown captivated audiences with her portrayal of Eleven, a telepathic girl who escapes from a cruel laboratory, makes new friends in the small town of Hawkins, and must hide from the shady scientists who want her back. Though Brown has a natural British affectation, spending so much time portraying an American character in both "Stranger Things" and other roles — not to mention the fact that she resides in the United States — made it surprisingly difficult to return to her original accent when she began filming for her first leading role in the 2020 film "Enola Holmes."
She told the Radio Times (via NME), "For the last five years, I've been playing an American character in 'Stranger Things,' and I found it really challenging being British in this, even though I am a Brit." It was a challenge, of course, that she ultimately succeeded at, delivering an authentic and highly entertaining performance in the title role. As Enola Holmes, Brown's British tones are flawless, helping to transport audiences to the heart of London where the story takes place. Fans of Brown's work in the film are in for yet another round of the character's daring detective work when "Enola Holmes 2" debuts on Netflix.