Last week, rumors began flying after the Daily Mail claimed Millie Bobby Brown had accused David Harbour of bullying and harassment before filming the final season of Stranger Things. The two have spent the past decade starring together in the show, where he plays her adoptive father. Neither Harbour nor Brown commented on the Daily Mail’s story — and the alleged “pages and pages of accusations” haven’t surfaced. Meanwhile, the Stranger Things season-five press tour has kicked off, and Harbour and Brown seem to be doing their best to dispel any rumors.
On Thursday, the duo made their first public appearance together since the story broke at the show’s season-five premiere in Los Angeles. They appeared as close-knit as ever, laughing and hugging as they posed together on the red carpet. Netflix — which also hasn’t commented on the allegations — posted a video of them together on Instagram, and Brown’s beauty line, Florence by Mills, commented on the post with a heart emoji.
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Elsewhere on the red carpet, the show’s director and executive producer, Shawn Levy, hit back against the claims at Thursday night’s premiere. “I’ve read a bunch of stories, and they range from wildly inaccurate to … there’s so much noise around it,” Levy told The Hollywood Reporter. “But the truth is that we view this crew and this cast as family, and so we treat each other with respect, and that’s always been bedrock.” Ross Duffer, the show’s co-creator, made similar comments to the outlet. “Obviously, you understand I can’t get into personal on-set matters, but I will say we’ve been doing this for ten years with this cast, and at this point they’re family and we deeply care about them,” he said. “So, you know, nothing matters more than just having a set where everyone feels safe and happy.”
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Harbour has said he and Brown have a tight bond. In an interview on the podcast That Scene With Dan Patrick in 2021, he said he had a “deep fatherly affection” for Brown that made him feel “protective” of her. “Millie and I have always had sort of a special relationship because I knew her when she was so young. I knew her before any of this big fame hit,” he said. It sounds like they also butted heads at times. “We went through so many different emotions … we get angry at each other; we are like father and daughter,” Brown said at PaleyFest in 2018, per Refinery29. “We got angry at each other, we would express our feelings on and off the set, and … those scenes were so raw and real that the reward is the scenes.”
