In the midst of a messy divorce from singer Lily Allen last year, Avengers: Doomsday star David Harbour was dealt another blow when The Daily Mail published a damning article alleging issues with actress Millie Bobbie Brown on the set of Netflix's Stranger Things.
The tabloid claimed that Brown had accused her co-star of "harassment and bullying," leading to her being accompanied by a personal assistant whenever she was on set with Harbour. That came after an investigation by the streamer that supposedly lasted "months."
While no sexual impropriety was alleged, the news threatened to overshadow the Stranger Things Season 5 premiere. However, with it widely theorised—but never confirmed—that Allen's team leaked details on the investigation, that may have been the point.
Habour and Brown put on a united front at the show's launch event, and the latter later defended her co-star. The Jim Hopper actor largely refrained from taking part in interviews for Stranger Things' final season, but has now broken his silence on the claims in an interview with Variety.
Calling the timing of the story "a weird thing" and saying that it "came out in a weird way," Harbour started by confirming that he and Brown are already working on "several" upcoming projects. He added, "You’ll see more of me and Millie — 10 years wasn’t enough. There is a special bond there. I love her. She loves me."
"It’s a show that went on for 10 years. We worked together for 10 years during her formative teenage years, playing father and daughter," Harbour mused. "I don’t know if people have families and friends that you spend a lot of time with for 10 years — you occasionally get in arguments, disagreements."
"In families, it’s OK because you’re just in a disagreement and then you come back together. The problem with a billion-dollar show is that there’s just hundreds of people who want to get involved."
"It’s simple. It was just a simple rupture-and-repair thing that, once we cleared everybody out of the way and talked to each other, we’re fine. Everyone nowadays is very scared of talking about things. People are very scared of being human. It’s unfortunate, because I don’t know how to navigate this weird media world. But it was completely normal, and we adore each other and always have," the actor concluded.
Echoing those comments, Brown, who played Eleven in the hit Netflix series, shared a brief statement with the trade by email:
"Obviously, I changed so much from Season 1 to Season 5, and David was there through all of it. Over time, our relationship became much more collaborative creatively. When you work with someone for that many years, we could really push each other emotionally in scenes. Even though the series has ended, there’s still a lot of gratitude. Getting to share that experience with him for so many years is something I’ll always remember and value."
The full profile is worth reading, as Harbour opens up on his divorce and struggles with mental health. Looking to the future, he said that he and Florence Pugh got to be on the Avengers: Doomsday set for "the moment when said character does said thing that you’ve seen before."
"We were just pinching ourselves that we get a front-row seat to this process," he teased, suggesting Red Guardian will share the screen with some heavy-hitters in the December 18 release.