Drew Barrymore inspired Millie Bobby Brown’s look in new movie ‘The Electric State’

Millie Bobby Brown has revealed that she drew inspiration from Drew Barrymore for her new movie The Electric State. 

The actress, who stars as Michelle in the Russo Brothers’ recently released sci-fi adventure, told Barrymore on Thursday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show that her blonde curls in her 1992 erotic thriller, Poison Ivy, served as the starting point for the look for Brown’s own character. 

“Speaking of visual references and billboards, is it true I was lucky enough to make your mood board?” Barrymore asked, prompting Brown to reply, “You didn’t make it — you were the mood board.”

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The camera then cut to an image of Barrymore in Poison Ivy, which featured her sporting big blonde hair, a mesh top, jean shorts, and a thick leather jacket. 

“I’m serious! This was at the center of my mood board,” Brown exclaimed, turning to the photograph on the screen behind them.

After seeing the snapshot, Barrymore, too, saw the vision, saying, “Oh yeah, that’s the hair!”

Brown explained that the film’s hair department went “a little bit blonder” than Barrymore’s character’s tresses to better fit the emotional conflict that Brown’s character is wrestling with in The Electric State. “She’s a little bit depressed and, as you see the film, you kind of see that she’s grieving through something,” Brown said. “So the warmness, it felt too colorful — it felt too happy.”

So they toned it down. “What we did was, we let my roots grow out really long as well, so she kind of feels like she’s not… caring anymore?” Brown said. “But your look was at the center, and I remember being like, ‘We have to replicate everything about this.'”

The reference received Barrymore’s stamp of approval. “You nailed it,” she said on her show.

Directed by Katt Shea, Poison Ivy starred Barrymore as Ivy, a mentally unstable teen who becomes obsessed with her best friend, Sylvie (Sara Gilbert), and her family. As her fascination grows, Ivy infiltrates their dynamic, leading to deadly consequences. The film, which went on to become a cult classic, also starred Tom Skerritt and Cheryl Ladd. 

Brown, meanwhile, headlines Netflix’s The Electric State, which follows Michelle and her robot companion as they hunt for her long-lost brother through a postapocalyptic world in the 1990s. On their adventure, the pair encounter a whole host of new faces, including Keats (Chris Pratt).

The Electric State is streaming now on Netflix. The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS.