I have waxed poetic on countless occasions about my undying love for potato chips. But the parboiled truth is, I wouldn’t be so obsessed with them in the first place if it weren’t for their delectable source material. I speak, of course, of potatoes. Humble in nature, yet when dressed up with the right sauce and/or preparation? Cowabunga! The potato is that unique food that is paradoxically both comforting and surprising with its infinite iterations. My love runneth as deep as a steak cut french fry. So I am not exaggerating when I say I was disturbed by a recent anecdote from Millie Bobby Brown. Millie was on Hot Ones to promote Enola Holmes 3 (out on Netflix now), and as part of her food history she shared that her Stranger Things costars used to roast her for eating baked potatoes on set. Umm, clearly they all must have been jealous, right? Because if not, then WTAF?
Millie Bobby Brown knows what it’s like to have coworkers become oddly fascinated by what’s in your lunch.
During a recent episode of Hot Ones, the British actor was asked about “British classics” and opened up about one of her favorites: a jacket potato, aka a baked potato.
Millie shared that she likes hers topped with beans, cheese, and HP sauce — but when she brought meals like that to the set of Stranger Things, it was met with a somewhat strong reaction from her American costars.
“When I was on Stranger Things, I used to get food-shamed a lot,” Millie said. “When I would go on, they’d be all American, and they’d be like, ‘Mate, what the f–k are you eating?’”
“Because they were like, ‘It’s like you live in the 1800s and you found some, like, specialty. It’s, like, wrapped in tinfoil,’” she continued.
Millie said the comments eventually got to the point where she would hide while eating.
“I’d, like, hide in a corner, because they’d be like, ‘What is that?’ And I was just like, ‘It’s a jacket potato with beans and cheese,’” she said, lowering her voice in an embarrassed tone. “It’s nothing.”
Although Millie laughed while telling the story, some viewers found the reaction from her costars unnecessarily rude.
“Shamed for eating a baked [potato],” one Reddit user wrote. Another replied, “I’m confused, English food is not that exotic.”
Others said the issue wasn’t the potato itself but the toppings — though they still felt making fun of someone’s food was rude.
“Baked potato covered in beans is very British. But making fun of any cultures food is weird,” one person wrote.
For many people, the part that stuck out was Millie saying she’d hide while eating.
“The fact she started hiding to eat is the part that actually makes me feel bad,” another said.
This story had me on an emotional arc from dumbfounded to boiled to absolutely fried! Again, the only logical explanation for mashing on a baked potato is that Millie’s costars were lyonnaising about their disgust in order to mask how much they wanted to get their fingerlings on the dish themselves, and that’s why they made a big show of hasselbacking her over them. Or perhaps, and I gnocchi they were all kids at the time, but maybe Millie’s costars were just woefully under-baked in the many gratin ways a potato can be served. Parents: don’t scallop over your children’s potato education!! Also, had these child actors really never encountered tinfoil in food cooking and/or storage before?? Talk about the Upside Down!
Lastly, I cannot leave this Hot Ones interview without acknowledging Millie’s revelation that she has a 500-pound pet lamb named Norman who thinks he’s a dog. You do you, Norman, you do you.
Photos credit: Getty Images for Netflix