Millie Bobby Brown’s warm reunion with Stranger Things co-star David Harbour at the show’s season five premiere on Thursday came as quite a shock to fans of the hit Netflix series.
It comes just days after the Daily Mail exclusively revealed that Brown, 21, had filed ‘pages and pages’ worth of bullying and harassment claims against Harbour, 50, ahead of shooting the show’s fifth and final season in 2024.
Despite her complaints, Brown looked thrilled to see Harbour – even bursting into laughter at times – as they posed for photos together on the red carpet at Thursday’s big premiere in Los Angeles.
In a video shared by Netflix’s official X account, the onscreen father-daughter duo shared a surprise hug while signing autographs for fans outside the famous TCL Chinese Theatre.
But now the Daily Mail is delving into the truth behind Brown and Harbour’s ‘cheery’ exchanges with the help of body language expert Judi James.
‘Millie and David are shown in two key moments here: apparently meeting up while he is signing autographs for the fans and then during their set poses on the carpet,’ James began.
‘Both times there seems to be a mutual intent to show a playful style of cheery friendliness.’
Millie Bobby Brown’s warm reunion with Stranger Things co-star David Harbour at the show’s season five premiere on Thursday came as quite a shock to fans of the hit Netflix series
And now Daily Mail is delving into the truth behind Brown and Harbour’s ‘cheery’ exchanges with the help of body language expert Judi James
Referring to the video shared by Netflix of the pair, James noticed that it was Brown who appeared to make the first move in her interaction with Harbour.
‘Millie seems to make the move to greet David in front of the fans in one clip and she approaches him with a mimed joke, holding her pen up in the air and appearing to pretend to sign an autograph close to his face while he responds by leaning back and roaring with delighted laughter,’ she said.
‘She approaches him with a mimed joke, holding her pen up in the air and appearing to pretend to sign an autograph close to his face while he responds by leaning back and roaring with delighted laughter.
‘Millie wriggles her body at her own joke, and the pair combine eye contact, sharing what looks like some overkill chuckling,’ James continued.
At the moment in the clip when Harbour leans in to hug Brown, James said that Brown’s body language signaled that she was ‘happy’ in the moment.
‘David immediately leans in to hug Millie, as though delighted to see her, and their faces are held close while Millie places a hand onto his shoulder. Her eyes are closed in her smile here as though signaling she is happy enough with the moment,’ James shared.
As for their red carpet moments, James said that the pair’s body language lacked the typical telltale signs, such as torso gapping, rictus smiles or dour expressions, that ‘can imply a lack of desire to register friendship’ between Brown and Harbour.
‘Their torso proximity seems close and his hand around Millie’s waist looks like a polite “gentleman’s hand” gesture with the fingers held away rather than holding or squeezing,’ James explained, adding that Brown’s ‘free hand on her leg shows no obvious signs of tension here.’
James also noticed Brown performing what she calls ‘upgrade’ gestures during her red carpet time with Harbour.
Referring to a video shared by Netflix of the pair, James noticed that it was Brown who appeared to make the first move in her interaction with Harbour.
‘Rather than just smiling to the front, restricting her attention to the cameras, she looks up at David and when he cracks a quip she looks keen to respond emphatically, squeezing her eyes shut to laugh and inclining her head towards him in a gesture of appreciation,’ she explained.
Many of the photos of Brown and Harbour taken at Thursday’s premiere show the young actress bursting into laughter, something James described as ‘overkill.’
‘His second quip receives what is almost an overkill response from her as she suggests she is helpless with laughter, again with her eyes closed and mouth open and her right hand placed onto her rib area as she giggles loudly,’ she said of the laughing photos.
At Thursday’s premiere, Millie put on a stunning display in a busty black lace off-the-shoulder gown featuring a plunging neckline of long black feathers.
She complemented the revealing sheer outfit with her dyed-red hair, which was styled up in a bun with delicate curled strands dangling to frame her impeccably made-up face.
The Enola Holmes star completed her look with tall heels and dangling diamond earrings.
David wore a black pinstripe suit, though he gave the outfit a tacky touch with a tie in the same striped pattern as his suit.
He paired the suit with black leather derbies and a white shirt, and he boasted a thick salt-and-pepper walrus mustache.
As if to signal that Millie and David’s work conflict was just water under the bridge, the two stars were joined on the red carpet by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and CCO Bela Bajaria.
Last week, The Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed that Harbour faced an internal inquiry as a result of Brown’s complaints against him.
For the big premiere, Millie put on a stunning display in a busty black lace off-the-shoulder gown featuring a plunging neckline of long black feathers
David wore a black pinstripe suit, though he gave the outfit a tacky touch with a tie in the same striped pattern as his suit
Last week, The Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed that Harbour faced an internal inquiry as a result of Brown’s complaints against him
So far, the outcome of the investigation is unknown, though it hasn’t prevented the two actors from making their public reunion at the season five premiere in Hollywood
Crucially, the complaints did not include any allegations of sexual impropriety.
So far, the outcome of the investigation is unknown, though it hasn’t prevented the two actors from making their public reunion at the season five premiere in Hollywood.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Millie Bobby Brown filed a harassment and bullying claim before they started shooting the last season. There were pages and pages of accusations. The investigation went on for months.’
Netflix declined to comment on the revelation, as did representatives for Brown, while representatives for Harbour and Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers didn’t respond.
In response to the streamer’s silence, the source said: ‘Netflix will never comment on an internal investigation, but the fact they’ve not denied it speaks volumes.
‘Stranger Things helped put Netflix on the map. Millions of fans around the world have been anticipating the finale,’ they added. ‘No one wants anything to take attention away from that.’
Despite the cheating allegations that have swirled around Harbour in recent weeks amid the release of his estranged wife Lily Allen’s new album West End Girl, which was released late last month, a source said she had stood by him in the wake of the bullying claim.
‘Lily supported him throughout it all. It was a brutal time,’ the source said.
As a result of Brown’s complaint, she was accompanied by a personal representative on set for the final season, which will release its first four episodes on Netflix on November 26.
The streamer tends to release show seasons in their entirety in a single drop, unlike several other streaming services that have lately returned to a traditional one-episode-per-week format in order to spread out audience excitement and interest over a longer timeframe.
However, Netflix appears to have changed up its usual approach, as it will release a second batch of three episodes on Christmas day, followed by a final feature-length finale to be released in simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service.
‘It will be a theatrical event,’ a Netflix source told The Mail on Sunday. ‘Nothing is going to overshadow this, not even the leading man’s private life.’
The source added that it was ‘unfortunate’ that Harbour’s personal woes had hit the headlines just as Stranger Things fans were looking forward to a global celebration to mark the end of the groundbreaking series.
Following the revelation of Brown’s complaints about Harbour, a video resurfaced that seemed to hint at the conflict between the two actors.
In the interview with MTV, which was shot prior to her wedding to Bongiovi, the former child star seemed uncomfortable as she spoke about Harbour’s upcoming role in her wedding.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Millie Bobby Brown filed a harassment and bullying claim before they started shooting the last season. There were pages and pages of accusations. The investigation went on for months’
Despite the cheating allegations that have swirled around Harbour in recent weeks amid the release of his estranged wife Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl, a source said she had stood by him in the wake of the bullying claim; pictured in June 2024 in NYC
As a result of Brown’s complaint, she was accompanied by a personal representative on set for the final season, which will release its first four episodes on Netflix on November 26
In the interview with MTV, which was shot prior to her wedding to Bongiovi, Brown seemed uncomfortable as she spoke about Harbour’s upcoming role in her wedding as their officiant; still from Stranger Things
‘[David] Harbour’s officiating?’ the interviewer asked, to which she uncomfortably replied, ‘Yes. Yes…’
According to The Sun, Brown added, ‘I don’t know how I feel. Sure.’
In an odd move, she then suggested that Matthew Modine, who played the government official who first experimented on Eleven and served as a complicated father figure to her.
Despite his on-screen conflicts with Brown’s character, Modine became good friends with her and her family in real life, which would have made him a logical figure to take over for Harbour.
