How Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour’s friendship went from inseparable to ‘bullying’

There’s officially a decade of history between Stranger Things actors Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour, and lately, it sounds like things have got complicated.

The two met back in 2015 when they were cast as Eleven and Jim Hopper in Netflix’s Stranger Things. Brown was just 11 years old when she first met Harbour on set, and the two have often talked about how their real-life relationship mirrored their on-screen one: Protective, emotional, and, as Millie once said, “raw and real”.

Credit: Netflix

But last week, the Daily Mail reported that Millie, now 21, allegedly filed a “bullying and harassment” complaint against her co-star ahead of filming the show’s fifth and final season. The outlet claimed the complaint sparked a months-long investigation and that Brown had a representative with her throughout filming. Neither Netflix, Harbour, nor Brown have publicly commented on the report.

Before all this, though, Harbour and Brown had often spoken about their bond in glowing terms. Back in 2020, Harbour told People that working with the young cast, including Millie, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, and Sadie Sink, felt “parental”.

Credit: Netflix

“At first I wanted to preserve Hopper’s seriousness off-camera,” he said. “But then you just become like a family, and my soft heart gets exposed.”

He’s always been especially protective of Millie. “I knew her when she was so young, before all this fame,” Harbour said in a 2021 podcast. “I have a real protective feeling for her. I worry about her, and I’ve always felt this deep fatherly affection.”

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He added that navigating fame at such a young age was “extremely difficult” and said he just wanted Millie “to be an artist who, when I’m in the nursing home, brings me her Oscars”.

Credit: Netflix

Millie has echoed those feelings over the years. Speaking to Variety in 2018, she said: “Winona Ryder and David Harbour are like my parents. On set they’re like, ‘Stop running, what are you eating?’”

She also admitted Harbour could be a bit too protective when it came to her love life: “David is like, ‘Another boy?’”

Their dynamic wasn’t always smooth, though. According to Refinery 29, Millie once told a PaleyFest audience that their working relationship could be angry and emotional: “We get angry at each other, we are like father and daughter. Those scenes were so raw and real that the reward is the scenes.”

Credit: Netflix

More recently, Millie Bobby Brown told Empire she and David Harbour “connected on another level” while filming, calling their bond something that grew and changed with the show itself.

Now, with reports of a formal complaint between them, people are left wondering what really went on behind the scenes.

In an interview in 2024, before she got married to Jake Bongiovi, Millie was heard talking about her wedding. The interviewer, for MTV, said that Hopper could end up officiating the wedding.

Millie then replied wearily, “Yes, yes, I don’t know how I feel….” while looking uncomfortable.

There are no reports to suggest that David was even in attendance at the wedding.

The Tab has reached out to David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown for comment.

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Featured image credit: Netflix