Millie Bobby Brown looked to Stranger Things costar Winona Ryder for inspiration

Millie Bobby Brown might have only been 12 years old when she began her tenure as Eleven on Netflix’s Stranger Things, but her impressive portrayal of the character suggests she received plenty of teaching and advice prior to beginning her role. And during a SAG Awards red carpet pre-show held by Entertainment Weekly, People and TNT, the young actor revealed that one of her inspirations when she first started on the show was Winona Ryder.

Though we’ve gotten used to Eleven looking more like a typical teenage girl as the show continues, Stranger Things fans will recall that the character once had a completely shaved head. Given that Ryder had a similarly short cut for her ’90s movies, like Girl, Interrupted, Brown looked to her for inspiration. “Winona Ryder cut her hair when she was younger so she always told me there’s going to be a stage where it’s going to have that really weird mid-length,” Brown said, “so I definitely got told that was a thing, by the way.”

Brown also said that, after spending so much time together while filming, she sees her costars as family. “You’re working for eight to nine months straight, and you form such great relationships and then you’re just leaving each other. So it’s always so emotional, but we’re ready to get back to shooting.”

Filming for Stranger Things 4 is set to begin this month, so the cast members will be together again soon. The new episodes will venture outside of Hawkins for a change, but we’ll still be following all of our favorites, even if they were separated at the end of the third season.

Speaking of the cast, let’s have a look at how the lot of them presented on the red carpet:

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 19: (L-R) Cara Buono, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Priah Ferguson, and Gaten Matarazzo attend the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. 721430 (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images for Turner) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 19: (L-R) Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton attend the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. 721430 (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images for Turner) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 19: (L-R) David Harbour and Winona Ryder attend the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. 721384 (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Turner)

Although the cast reserved the best moves for behind the scenes:

Hopefully, Stranger Things season 4 will be out this year. 2021 is definitely a strong possibility, though.

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