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
I love a good baked potato topped either with beans or grated cheese – like cheese on toast its the best comfort food, EVA. Come for me all you will but its a hill I will die on 🙂
Also the food shaming was wrong and the rest of the cast should have been spoken to about it – it sounds like what started as some banter/ribbing escalated to the point she felt uncomfortable eating with everyone else. When someone becomes that uncomfortable then its not ‘fun’ any more. This is how eating disorders start.
None of this makes sense other than her coworkers are jerks. Baked potatoes are not some exotic foreign dish that nobody there would have ever tried before. [Unfortunately] I could imagine a group of mean girl actors bullying her about eating carbs, but weren’t most of her coworkers men on Stranger Things? As Digital Unicorn said, even if it started out as teasing, it should have been stopped when it reached the point of her hiding from them just to eat a baked potato for lunch.
It’s the beans as the topping. Gentle ribbing is OK. But not to the point where a person has to hide eating. But, I do find it interesting that the British still haven’t expanded their culinary tastes beyond WWII food rationing.
I love beans, including the British style baked beans, and I love potatoes so I might try this. Though I doubt Millie’s American co-stars referred to her as “mate.”
Yes, it’s the beans part they were probably focused on.
What makes British baked beans different from American-style? I’m guessing less sweet?
Tiffany, I think the British baked beans are more tomatoey than American-style baked beans.
This is so untrue and really rude. They had rationing for years longer than North Americans but British cuisine now is incredibly good. Lots of fresh meat, veggies and herbs. Also, there is nothing wrong with eating a baked potato with beans and cheese as a packed lunch at work. It’s like taking a sandwich. If you saw someone eating a PBJ, would you be similarly rude about American food?
Yea beans on potatoes is gross to me but let the girl eat ffs. I think there was probably a lot of drama on that set and they didn’t help things by making Millie ‘the star’ and isolating her from the rest of the cast. There were definitely cliques and fortunately she had Noah as her bf.
From what I’ve read elsewhere her father should take a lot of the blame for the tensions between Millie and the rest of the child cast – he pushed for her to be treated as the ‘star’ of the show and seemed to encourage the isolation/special treatment. IIRC he often took her off set to go to paid events with the result being that she got a LOT more media attention than the other kids (reinforcing that she was the star of the show).
I imagine that with a large group of kids that yeah there would have been clique’s but I think there was a lot of hustling from the stage parents – esp hers. There were persistent rumours that she and the rest of the child cast didn’t get along and this anecdote seems to confirm some of them. If they continually picked on her because of what she was eating then thats a form of bullying and nothing appears to have been done about it.
Yea lots of stories about her parents. Apparently it was a classic child star dynamic where she was bankrolling the whole family. You can understand why she grew up so fast.
Baked beans with cheese is such an amazing combo, it’s a go-to on toast in winter when I can’t be bothered to cook. I can’t be bothered having a potato in the oven for that long but that’s the only reason I don’t have baked potatoes at home.
The sweetness of the beans with the tartness of the cheese works really well. I could even be persuaded to try with HP sauce.
I am judging her castmates here, let people eat what they want and if you need to make a joke one time do that then let it go. A lot of people have a tricky enough relationship with food as it is.
Sounds like typical junior high/high school behavior – making fun of someone else’s lunch. Kids can be mean.
Food-shamed by … checks notes… Americans?
IDK man we have some pretty amazing restaurants out here not to mention the sheer variety of food to choose from. When I was in London I ate at a couple nice restaurants but I could never get down with traditional English food and I feel like I gave it a fair shot. *shrugs* Different strokes for different folks I guess.
It’s kind of funny to me that burgers and pizza are our stereotype when that’s like…picnic cookout or Friday night drunk food here lol. Southern cuisine is what I’d call our true native food, and the rest is immigrant fusion cuisine, but you almost never see that mentioned or referenced outside the country. No wonder they think our food sucks lol.
Had beans on toast for supper last night. LOL Oddly, it was Wendy’s drive through that got me started on home made baked potatoes. They used to have a baked potato dish with melted, waxy cheese and broccoli. Then, when I finally learned the magic of ‘baking’ a potato in the microwave, well, that’s one of my favourite go-to brunch combos. Baked potato, with cheese, broccoli and plain yoghurt instead of sour cream. A delicious dish in less than 10 minutes, all told. YUM! I might have to make that for myself today, come to think of it!
Baked potatoes with butter, loads of butter. I often say I like a little potato with my butter. I love the potato skin wet with butter. Yum.
These food puns are unbearable, please stop.
This is dumb. There’s nothing wrong with a baked potato and there are a variety of toppings that work with it. I have not tried beans on potatoes (maybe a bit too carb-heavy for me) but I’m sure it tastes good.
I know they were just kids but I don’t love it when people comment on other people’s food choices. Maybe I’m being oversensitive because of my issues with having an ED but if someone is prone to eating disorders, this could discourage them from eating.
I so enjoy your writing style, especially the puns.
The workplace environment sounds unpleasant.
Love baked potatoes. So good and easy.
I also love a baked sweet potato. Add a couple tablespoons of peanut butter and it is a perfect lunch!