Why Millie Bobby Brown Has ‘Real Fear’ When Acting with Jamie Campbell Bower on Stranger Things

“He terrifies me when he is Vecner. I am terrified of his costume,” the actress revealed

From left: Millie Bobby Brown and Jamie Campbell Bower. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Juan Naharro Gimenez/WireImage

Millie Bobby Brown struggles with separating reality from fiction when it comes to Jamie Campbell Bower’s Stranger Things character, Vecna.

During an appearance at the Stranger Things Epic Con panel on Oct. 20 in Jackson, Georgia, the 20-year-old actress responded to a fan’s question about her favorite scenes with Bower, joking, “None of them. He terrifies me when he is Vecner. I am terrified of his costume. It scares me.”

“I don’t like masks, which is crazy because I am at Comic Con,” she added. “But I don’t like people covering their faces. It’s definitely a phobia. I’ve had it since I was little.”

From left: Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard and Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in “Stranger Things”. Courtesy of Netflix

Brown recalled first seeing Bower dressed as his character on the set of the hit Netflix series.

“He comes on to [the] set and I am like, ‘Who is that?'” she shared. “And they are like, ‘It’s Jamie’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not Jamie. That is a gremlin that lives in my closet and is waiting for me to fall asleep to kill me.'”

Crew members told Brown that she needed to “calm down” and find something that reminded her of Bower.

“I’m like, sobbing in my tent and I’m like nothing reminds me of Jamie,” she recalled. “It was horrible, and then I close my eyes, and I smelled on his breath cigarettes. I’m like that’s Jamie.”

“Any scene that I have to pretend to be scared, he knows it’s real fear,” she added. “Yes, Jamie is the best. I love working with him — but not other him.”

(L to R) Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard in “Stranger Things”.Netflix

Back in July 2022, Bower opened up to PEOPLE about his close bond with Brown, whom he affectionately calls “Mills.”

“Mills and I became very close whilst working together,” he said at the time. “And I knew that we would do from the read-through. I was sat behind her… and when I started talking, doing the Henry stuff, she turned around, looked at me in the eyes, and kind of smiled.”

He added: “And it was at that, when you connect with somebody like that, there’s this sort of safety that’s brought into the space. It was an amazing, instant vibe.”

Stranger Things seasons 1-4 is available to stream on Netflix. The fifth and final season is set to premiere sometime in 2025.