"I actually call it the accent gate"— Millie Bobby Brown defends blending American and British accent in her day-to-day life

Millie Bobby Brown didn't hold back in shutting down people criticizing her for shifting between British and American accents. During her appearance on Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett's SmartLess podcast on Monday, March 10, 2025, she addressed the backlash she received for "accent gate." She recalled:

"That was such a huge thing for a minute. I actually call it the accent gate because it's so frustrating because that was everywhere. Like for a second, everyone was talking about my accent, and they had a real problem about it."

However, Millie Bobby Brown defended herself, because while she is British and was raised in England, she pointed out that she was "married to an American." Her husband, Jake Bongiovi, whom she married in May 2024 after three years of dating, was born in the United States. She explained:

"When I'm around his family, I immediately go into, like, an American accent. But then I was just in England, and then the second I hear my mom and dad's accent, I just go right back."

Going back and forth between her home in England and the US, and spending time with her husband and his family, makes switching between British and American accents second nature to the Stranger Things actress.

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Millie Bobby Brown credits her ability to switch between different accents to being an actor

Besides being married to an American, Millie Bobby Brown said during her March 10 SmartLess podcast appearance that being an actor added to the fact that she could change accents on a whim.

The characters she plays in various projects play a huge part in how she speaks, saying:

"You want me to play these characters, but you expect me not to morph into people. What I hear is what I do. It's all part of it."

It wasn't the first time Millie Bobby Brown had to defend herself from critics about her American and British accents. In March 2024, podcaster Max Balegde shared a video interview of the Stranger Things actress on TikTok doing the same, saying:

"I'm an actor. 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 people."

She explained that she couldn't help replicating accents depending on the people she was around at the time.

She said that when she's around people like her then-fiancé or Jimmy Fallon, who she said has a "very American accent," she wanted to replicate that and the same thing goes for people she meets when she's in England.

Brown also mentioned in the video that she doesn't switch between the two accents intentionally, and while she's sorry for people who were offended by it, she said she was trying her best.

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Speaking of utilizing her American accent, Millie Bobby Brown will be back playing Eleven in Stranger Things's fifth and final season. The show has wrapped up filming and released several teasers, including the addition of a time jump to address the character's ages and the titles of the eight action-packed episodes.

That said, the release date remains unannounced, although it's expected to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2025.