David Harbour shouldn’t be having a very good month. However attendees on the Los Angeles premiere occasion on Nov. 6 for the fifth and last season of Netflix’s “Stranger Issues” may not have observed.
Harbour was all smiles on the pink carpet, significantly as he playfully hugged co-star Millie Bobby Brown, and so they took selfies with followers. The 2 arrived on the occasion collectively, and even traded compliments in interviews on the carpet: Brown instructed “Leisure Tonight” that she “clearly had a very particular bond with David as a result of we now have a father-daughter relationship, and we do each scene collectively… It’s been so particular to have him alongside the journey for me.” When Harbour spoke with ET, the solely outlet he granted an interview, he stated of Brown: “I like her, and I’ve been proud to look at all of them develop up and turn out to be such nice artists… this explicit challenge is so particular, and we’ve gotten to know one another so deeply.”
If the 2 appeared overly chummy on Thursday, maybe that was the purpose: The premiere occasion got here simply days after the U.Ok.’s Every day Mail Nov. 1 report that Brown had filed a criticism of bullying and harassment in opposition to Harbour previous to the beginning of manufacturing of Season 5. Neither star commented on the story, and Harbour restricted his interactions with the press on the premiere.
The information of Brown’s criticism in opposition to Harbour has threatened to overshadow protection of the ultimate season of “Stranger Issues.” However insiders say that even earlier than the latest information, Harbour wasn’t anticipated to participate in press junkets for the present attributable to his busy filming schedule. (His upcoming tasks subsequent yr embody HBO’s “DTF St. Louis” — with Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini — and Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” opening December 2026.)
PR specialists steered to Selection that the pink carpet choreography — in addition to the total solid’s look collectively on stage on the TCL Chinese language Theater previous to screening Episode 1 — was meant to ship a message that the solid is united, and that the present is greater than anyone individual. “The aim in these conditions is to make it no worse,” one disaster PR exec stated.
As a substitute, Netflix leaned into the imagery of Harbour and Brown being playful on the carpet, posting a video of the 2 as they greeted followers. Brown’s style model, Florence by Mills, favored the video and posted a coronary heart emoji, and most of the fan feedback on the publish steered that they thought the experiences of drama between the 2 stars was a lot ado about nothing. Photographs taken contained in the get together additionally present the 2 being chummy.
Sources with information of the state of affairs have confirmed to Selection that there was an investigation into Brown’s criticism, and that it was resolved. As father and daughter on the present, in addition to comrades in arms, Brown and Harbour share a number of scenes in Season 5 of “Stranger Issues,” together with a scene noticed by a reporter for Selection throughout a day-long go to to the set in July 2024.
Representatives for Brown, Harbour and Netflix didn’t reply to requests for remark. On the carpet, the present’s inventive leaders — creators Matt and Ross Duffer, and government producer Shawn Levy — have been requested concerning the criticism immediately by the Hollywood Reporter; whereas they declined to talk about the actors by title, all of them spoke concerning the significance of guaranteeing their solid feels protected inside the “household” ambiance of the present.
“I’ve learn a bunch of tales and so they vary from wildly inaccurate to…there’s a lot noise round it,” Levy instructed the outlet. “However the fact is that we view this crew and this solid as household, and so we deal with one another with respect, and that’s at all times been bedrock.” Mentioned Ross Duffer: “We’ve been doing this for 10 years with this solid, and at this level they’re household and we deeply care about them. So, you recognize, nothing issues extra than simply having a set the place everybody feels protected and blissful.”
Within the first 4 seasons of “Stranger Issues,” Brown’s character, Eleven (launched in Season 1 as a quiet, pre-teen woman with extraordinary telekinetic skills), and Harbour’s character, Hopper (launched because the burnout chief of police of Hawkins, Indiana), type a surrogate father-daughter bond. In Seasons 2 and three, Eleven and Hopper expertise some friction attributable to Hopper’s overprotective concern for Eleven’s security; by Season 4, the characters function in completely separate storylines and don’t share a scene till the final minutes of the season finale.
The Every day Mail report was sourced to “a good friend” of Harbour’s ex-wife Lily Allen. That’s of be aware as a result of the story of Brown’s criticism broke amid a flurry of consideration surrounding Harbour’s divorce from singer-songwriter Allen, whose new album, “West Finish Woman,” goes into in depth element about Harbour’s alleged infidelity, as within the tune “Pussy Palace.” In his evaluate in Selection, Chris Willman stated the album “is a divorce file with a capital D,” and that Allen and Harbour cut up up “after 5 years of marriage that apparently began as a fairy-tale romance for her and ended within the devastation strewn all through each observe on the album.”
