“There were pages and pages of accusations,” an unnamed source alleged. “The investigation went on for months.” Brown’s allegations against Harbour, according to the Daily Mail report, did “not include claims of sexual impropriety”.
Brown and Harbour, pictured here in 2018 with co-star Winona Ryder, first met on the set of Stranger Things in 2015, when Brown was 11 years old.Credit: Getty Images for Turner Image
The alleged investigation’s outcome and details are not known, though the tabloid reported Brown was accompanied by a personal legal representative at all times while she was filming on set. Neither Brown, Harbour nor Netflix has publicly addressed the Daily Mail report.
The closest thing to an acknowledgement was from series co-creator Ross Duffer, who told The Hollywood Reporter at the world premiere in Los Angeles on November 6 (November 7 AEDT) that he “can’t get into personal on-set matters”.
“But I will say we’ve been doing this for 10 years with this cast, and at this point they’re family, and we deeply care about them,” Duffer said five days after the Daily Mail report was published. “So, you know, nothing matters more than just having a set where everyone feels safe and happy.”
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Director and executive producer Shawn Levy, meanwhile, said: “I’ve read a bunch of stories and they range from wildly inaccurate to … there’s so much noise around it. 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.”
Brown and Harbour still follow each other on Instagram, and there is no evidence Harbour has hired a crisis PR representative – due to these claims or his ex-wife Lily Allen’s scathing album, released in October.
While Brown and Harbour, like Baldoni and Lively, have not sat down for joint interviews on the globe-trotting press tour, Harbour has been busy filming Courteney Cox’s Evil Genius in New Jersey. However, he arrived at the LA premiere of the new season with Brown.
The duo were snapped hugging and laughing as they posed together on the red carpet and took selfies with fans – a striking difference to Baldoni and Lively’s approach. (Baldoni has alleged that he and his family were relegated to the basement for a separate screening during one premiere.)
And the chummy footage of Brown and Harbour was posted to Netflix’s Instagram account, with Brown’s beauty brand Florence by Mills commenting with a purple heart emoji underneath.
What has Millie Bobby Brown said about David Harbour?
Although Harbour did speak to entertainment reporter Josh Horowitz, who was one of the LA event’s hosts, he granted an interview to only one other outlet at the world premiere.
“I adore her, and I’ve been proud to watch all of them grow up and become such great artists,” Harbour told ET of Brown and her cast mates. “This particular project is so special, and we’ve gotten to know each other so deeply.”
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Brown told the same outlet on the same night that she “obviously had a really special bond with [Harbour] because we have a father-daughter relationship, and we do every scene together … It’s been so special to have him along the journey for me.”
Days later, she sat down with The Hollywood Reporter, who asked Brown why it was important to show a united front with Harbour amid the headlines.
“We’ve been doing that for the last 10 years,” Brown responded. “I mean, we have always been united in that. We love this show with everything, and we value our friendship more than anything.”
In the show, Brown plays Eleven, a young girl with telekinetic and extrasensory powers. Harbour’s character, ex-police chief Jim Hopper, adopts Eleven and becomes the father she never had.Credit: Netflix
Brown and Harbour were extensively snapped laughing and hugging on the red carpet at the series’ world premiere in Los Angeles in early November, five days after the Daily Mail report was published.Credit: Roger Kisby/Netflix
Such is the party line she’s repeated for the past three weeks, most recently in an interview with Deadline, published on the publication’s TikTok account on November 29, when she was asked if she “felt safe” while filming with Harbour.
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“Of course I felt safe, we’ve worked together for 10 years; I felt safe with everyone on that set,” Brown said. “We also play father and daughter so naturally you have a closer bond than the rest… But David and I have a great relationship.”
A lot has been riding on Brown and Harbour’s relationship, on- and off-screen. It is, of course, a vital thread in the series’ core narrative, and a key reason Stranger Things has become one of Netflix’s most culturally significant shows.
Three years after its release, Season 4 remains the streamer’s third-most popular English-language series of all time, achieving 140.7 million views within 91 days of its release. It’s believed the juggernaut has generated more than $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) in revenue for Netflix since 2020, and it’s sparked spin-offs by way of a Broadway production and an upcoming animated series.
“I really am excited for everyone to see the labour of love, and hard work we put into the closure of our relationship, and what that looks like,” Brown told Deadline of Harbour. “And to give some of the fans, especially the Hopper and Eleven fans, those scenes that I feel, I think are gonna be quite impactful.”
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