The Rejection That Almost Made Millie Bobby Brown Quit Acting
We couldn't imagine anyone else as Eleven in Stranger Things. But the world came close to missing out on Millie Bobby Brown as the iconic character, which earned her two Emmy nominations, and as the star and a producer of Netflix's Enola Holmes. It was an audition for Game of Thrones that almost made her give up acting, as she explained in an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Brown started acting at age seven, and pre-Stranger Things she did some guest roles, including on Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, and Modern Family (via Biography), but she found work hard to come by. "This industry is just full of rejection 24/7... I was auditioning for commercials, for anything really. I then auditioned for Game of Thrones and I got a no for that. And then, that's when I was like, 'Oh, this is really difficult,' and I guess I really wanted that role."
A yes after lots of no has opened doors for Millie Bobby Brown
What role was she hoping for? None other than the feisty Lyanna Mormont (via Preview). After that rejection, Brown was on what she called her last goes at auditioning when a Netflix project called Montauk showed up (via The Tonight Show). That show turned out to be Stranger Things, where she got a yes after what sounds like plenty of no. Bonus, she still got to play a fierce female character on TV.
Her impressive work on Stranger Things led to her being named on the 2018 list of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people, at 14, Brown was the youngest person ever to make the list (via BBC). And the actress has taken her star power and branched out. She has a beauty brand Florence by Mills that you can buy at Ulta (via Seventeen), and she's been a face for Calvin Klein Jeans and a model in ads for Italian fashion brand Moncler (via TigerBeat).