Actress Natalia Dyer wants people to stop “over sexualizing” her “younger” Stranger Things costars.
For those who missed it, at only 13 years old, Millie Bobby Brown was listed as one of the reasons TV is “sexier than ever” by W Magazine.
“There are so many layers going on here,” the actress said to Independent in a new interview. “I generally feel like, to me, it’s over sexualizing them. I feel protective over the younger kids even though they’re not kids anymore, they’re teens.”
On Millie’s 16th birthday, she admitted in a powerful Instagram post, “there are moments I get frustrated from the inaccuracy, inappropriate comments, sexualization and unnecessary insults that ultimately have resulted in pain and insecurity for me.”
The 25-year-old continued, “They’re all great people and all having to grow up in very crazy circumstances. As a private person, I just feel like, leave people alone — unless you’re talking about their work or what they want to talk about. It’s a very tricky and complex issue. It’s a cultural issue, there must be a bigger concept behind it as to why. Just let people be the people that they are, without any judgement.”
When it comes to the attention she’s got from staring in the Netflix series, Natalia admitted that she’s had a difficult time dealing with the fame.
“It’s lovely to meet fans,” she explained. “But it’s very like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just want to go to the grocery store and get some milk. I don’t want to take a photo everywhere I go.’ At first, it was jarring. There are fans everywhere. It’s a difficult thing to navigate. It’s been like five years since we started Stranger Things, and I’ve become more confident in how I handle situations. At first, I had quite a few bouts of anxiety just as the show was coming out because there’s this mentality of letting people down and not giving enough. I feel like my work is what I did. I don’t owe somebody a photo. I gave them my work.”
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