Millie Bobby Brown made sure to impart some of her wisdom onto the new child stars who joined Season 5 of “Stranger Things.”
Newcomer Jake Connelly, who plays Derek Turnbow in the new season, revealed to TheWrap during Thursday’s red carpet premiere that the “Stranger Things” leading lady was the one to really welcome him into the fold at the start of production.
“I gotta say, one of the first days of the table read, Millie Bobby Brown called me over to her [trailer] and — my mom had no idea where I went — I was just there with Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi just chilling it up, just talking,” Connelly recalled to TheWrap. “And she said, ‘Oh yeah, we were all your age when we started. If you ever need anything, you can just call us.’”
Brown stepped up as an on-set mentor, Connelly said: “She gave us some great advice.”
Connelly, who was born in 2012, said he was “just about four when the show first came out,” but shared he was a fan long before he was cast in Season 5.
“I started watching it a good couple years ago, probably around when Season 4 came out,” he said. “As a family, we sat down every night and watched an episode before bed. It was just so fun seeing everything that my mom grew up with in the ’80s.”
Connelly joins a number of new faces rounding out the Season 5 cast, including fellow child star Nell Fisher, who steps into the shoes of Holly Wheeler. As for what’s to come for this new gang of children on “Stranger Things,” Connelly warned his character Derek isn’t “really a nice person,” describing the youngster as a “bully” in Hawkins.
“He really has that good deep down in his heart,” he added. “All bullies are really just insecure and they just have that insecurity and they take it out on other people. But if somebody has someone to actually lift them up and be the wind underneath their wings they can patch all those insecurities and they can do great things.”
Will Derek rise to the occasion in Season 5? You’ll have tune in to find out.
The first volume of “Stranger Things 5” premieres on Netflix Nov. 26 at 5 p.m. PT, with the second volume premiering on Christmas Day at the same time. The final episode of the series will premiere at 5 p.m. PT on New Year’s Eve.
