Martie Blair, the child actress who played young Eleven in Stranger Things season four’s flashback scenes, has labeled Millie Bobby Brown as an inspiration.
As fans of the hit TV series have seen, volume 1 of season four takes viewers back to the Hawkins National Laboratory, where the character Eleven, played by 18-year-old Brown, was experimented on as a young girl.
After much speculation from viewers, the writers of the hit Netflix series revealed on May 31 that eight-year-old Eleven was played by Blair in this season's flashback scenes.
The writers shared a photo of Brown guiding Blair with the caption: "Shout-out to Martie Blair, who played young Eleven, and to Millie, who directed her every step of the way." The tweet praising both actors amassed 30.5K retweets and 471.9K likes.
The child actress took to her own Instagram account to honor Brown and shared a photo of them on set, writing: "Thank you @milliebobbybrown for being such an inspiration to me, when I showed up on set, you came right up to me. You made me feel so comfortable and welcomed. Thanks for spending time with me and helping me make my scenes awesome!"
Blair posted another snap of her co-star, with the caption: "Cheeky ladies!!!! MBB + MMB #milliebobbybrown #martiemarieblair #011 #youngeleven Thank you @milliebobbybrown for being such a great role model, I will be forever grateful."
Fans shared their thoughts online after discovering that the directors of the show, the Duffer Brothers, didn't just use special effects in the flashback scenes, but also had Blair play young Eleven.
One user thought the directors "de-aged" Brown: "Not gonna lie I thought they just de-aged Millie. I did not realize this was a completely different person."
Another user chimed in and presumed the filmmakers shot the flashback scenes years ago: "Not me thinking they filmed all that with younger Millie."
WRBL News anchor Karyssa D'Agostino also commented and said: "I quite literally just said OUT LOUD 'how did they shrink her?' so clearly the directing and casting paid off lol."
Per Cosmopolitan, in May it was reported that this season of Stranger Things had a per-episode cost of $30 million. The streaming service went all out with the budget, and perhaps this explains why some viewers assumed young Eleven was played by Brown with just the use of CGI.
As reported by Forbes, Volume 1 of Stranger Things season four had the biggest opening weekend for an English-language show on Netflix. Volume 2 will be released on July 1 and is predicted to break the show's record.