Millie Bobby Brown Reacts to Comments About Her Changing Accent: 'I’m an Actor and I Adapt'

The 'Stranger Things' star, 20, said in a new interview that she mimics those around her when she's in the U.S.

Millie Bobby Brown attends the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
Millie Bobby Brown. Photo:

Jon Kopaloff/Getty

Millie Bobby Brown is responding to questions from fans who are concerned that she’s losing her accent.

On Friday, while doing an interview with internet personality Max Balegde for her new Netflix fantasy-action film Damsel, the actress addressed fans who left comments after her recent appearance on The Tonight Show, worrying that she had lost her British accent.

“I’m an actor,” Brown, 20, said in the two-minute TikTok. “I grew up in the public eye. I grew up in America. I come to set and I’m an actor and I adapt, and so I want to mimic other people.”

“I can’t help that when I’m around my fiancé, or when I’m with people like Jimmy Fallon who have a very American accent, I wanna replicate it,” she continued. “And now I’m in England, I wanna replicate that [accent]. I don’t do it intentional, and I’m sorry if it offends you, okay? But listen, I’m trying my best. I’m trying my best.”

After fiercely defending her, Balegde then proceeded to jokingly present Brown with a gift card for the British fast food restaurant Nando’s, in order to help her prove her identity if asked about her accent again.

When the Stranger Things star appeared on the episode of The Tonight Show opposite Jimmy Fallon last week, fans took to social media to discuss how it seems like she has fully taken on an American accent since living and working in the U.S. 

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Throughout the interview, the actress — who was born to British parents and spent much of her childhood in Bournemouth, England, before eventually moving to Orlando, Florida — spoke mostly in an American accent, using an English inflection on a few select words.

On YouTube, one viewer noted, “Her british accent is barely there anymore😭😭. I know she's been in america for a long time now but omg it used to be SO strong,” while several others compared her voice to resembling a valley girl’s or “an impersonation of an American accent.”

Brown has also spoken about this issue before. During a 2020 appearance on Miley Cyrus’ Instagram series Bright Minded, Brown told the pop star, 31, that she picked up her first American accent from watching Hannah Montana.

The Damsel actress also said during a 2022 appearance on The Tonight Show that watching the Disney Channel series was in fact how she perfected her American accent.

"I like to see characters and then I just do the accent," Brown admitted at the time. "As long as I've watched it for long enough, I can kind of get it to somewhat of a T."

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