‘Stranger Things’ Season 4: ‘Young and the Restless’ Actor Helped Millie Bobby Brown Become Young Eleven
After consuming part one of Stranger Things Season 4, some are curious about Young Eleven. A child actor and special effects created the younger version of Millie Bobby Brown‘s we see in the Netflix series. Find out where you may have seen Brown’s co-star before, plus how old Young Eleven is supposed to be in the season 4 flashbacks.
‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 is Martie Blair’s second TV role
Martie Blair is credited as Young Eleven in Stranger Things Season 4 (via IMDb). However, Blair’s acting portfolio also includes the character Bella Fischer from the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Blair has also appeared in shorts like The Sugar & Bones Club, Safe, Piece-A-Cake, The Last Dragon, Turf War, and Bake Sale.
Young Eleven is 8-years-old in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 flashbacks
Most of the characters in Stranger Things were born in 1971, including Eleven. She is 12-years-old in the first season according to Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins), who maintained Eleven’s nursery for “a dozen years.”
Of course, Eleven is older in Season 4 of Stranger Things, which opens with a flashback to her younger days at the Hawkins Lab. The year is 1979 and a catastrophic massacre takes place, showing all of Dr. Martin Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) subjects getting slaughtered presumably at the hands of Eleven. Later in the season, Eleven confronts these memories and relives the events of that day, revealing the truth.
Since the massacre occurred in 1979, Eleven is approximately 8-years-old in the flashback scenes in season 4. This makes her 15-years-old in the present-day storyline, which tracks considering her status as a high school freshman.
Duffer Brothers used Martie Blair instead of de-aging Millie Bobby Brown
In both the opening scene and flashbacks to the massacre, Eleven sees a younger version of herself. Instead of de-aging Brown for those scene, her face was superimposed onto Blairs (via Fansided). She stood in for Brown in flashback scenes where Young Eleven appears. Technically, Blair’s face never appears in Stranger Things, thanks to the magic of CGI.
Martie Blair has been a fan of ‘Stranger Things’ since she was 4-years-old
Since the release of season 4, the young actor has shared several behind-the-scenes posts to social media, including a video of her hair being cut to play Young Eleven. In another post, she called it a “dream come true” to play the role, writing on Instagram:
“Getting to play #youngeleven has been a dream come true. I’ve been watching Stranger Things since I was 4[-years-old]; it’s our family show … all our friends and family know how much we as a family love the series.
It’s been so hard keeping this a secret for so long but I’m happy I get to share it with everyone now. I can’t thank the @dufferbrothres enough for giving me this opportunity, working with them was awesome, they are both so talented, creative but above all have an amazing vision.”
Martie Blair, Instagram
Watch all seven episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 Volume I on Netflix.
