If you’re suffering from Eleven withdrawal, fear not: In Oscar-nominated filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Damsel, Millie Bobby Brown is entering a different kind of Upside Down. As the determined and courageous Elodie, Brown flips the script on the traditional fairy tale as a princess whose happily ever after is brutally interrupted when her Prince Charming sacrifices her to a dragon. Forget what you’ve heard about tales that begin with “Once upon a time…” — this damsel has only herself to rely on. 

“She’s a damsel who doesn’t need to be saved,” Brown told Netflix. “She saves herself in many ways. It subverts what you expect: You’re expecting the prince to turn around and save her, and… no. Don’t wait for the prince.”

“What I really loved in the script from Dan Mazeau was embracing the idea of a fantasy adventure and a princess and dragon story, but taking it into a place [where] it’s completely upside down,” Fresnadillo tells Tudum. “It was a very intense journey that I was so excited to design and to develop. At the core, this is such a beautiful story about a young woman becoming a strong, independent, and empowered adult. Elodie doesn’t have any kind of support. It’s a real survival experience.”

You can catch a glimpse of the obstacles Elodie faces in the trailer for the film above: It features glowing rocks, giant swords, the aforementioned very big dragon, as well as Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, and Nick Robinson. What more could you ask for?

What is Damsel about?

Damsel sees Brown as a dutiful, well, damsel, who agrees to marry a handsome prince — only to discover it was all a trap: The royal family recruits her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. She’s then thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, where she has to rely solely on her wits and will to survive.

As Elodie fights alone in the bowels of the monster’s lair, she is the audience’s eyes and ears. “You feel that you are experiencing the journey of surviving and facing this creature with Elodie,” Fresnadillo says. “The emotional arc is so intense.”

The on-set cave system helped Brown herself feel like she was experiencing that journey. “It was hard running through [the caves],” Brown said. “It was hard falling in them. It was hard to scream, because nobody could hear you. You couldn’t see anything. Everything felt so real. So I loved the caves as an actor, but hated them as Elodie.”

Set to the strains of “Run from Me” by Timber Timbre, the film’s teaser trailer showcases Elodie’s fairy-tale seduction by the royal family — and the ensuing reality of her situation, as she fights for her life in the depths of a cave. “For generations, it has been our task to protect our people,” Wright narrates. “So tonight, you join a long line of women who have helped to build this kingdom.” The sentiment’s true meaning is made clear by the accompanying image: Brown brushing her hand across the steep wall of the cave, where previous captives’ names have been carved into the surface.

How Millie Bobby Brown Overcame a Major Fear While Filming Damsel

Elodie is walking in the bleak footsteps of her predecessors, but Brown could only look forward. “I couldn’t draw from anything because I’ve personally never read a story like Damsel,” she said. “With Eleven, I’m able to draw from Mad Max. Or, with Enola Holmes, I’m able to draw a little bit from Hermione in Harry Potter. I couldn’t find anyone for Elodie and so I knew I was going to have to create her, find her along the way, find what her weaknesses and strengths are, and really create a life and a journey for her so that everybody would care about her, believe in her, and root for her.”

And Elodie will need all the support she can get to make it through Damsel alive. “It’s a thrilling adventure with a really dark twist to put you on the edge of your seat,” Fresnadillo says. “As a filmmaker, one of the things I always want to do is surprise the audience with a new take on a story. Especially this kind of [traditional story] — we have to modernize those tales with new takes, more modern and real ways, to connect with the audience.”

In other words, even if you don’t casually come across dragons in your day-to-day life, you’ll still recognize many of the hurdles Elodie faces throughout the story. “We tried to make this as real as we can,” he adds. “It’s a fantasy, but grounded in reality.”

Where can I watch the trailer for Damsel?

Check it out at the top of this article!

Who’s in the cast of Damsel?

John Wilson/Netflix

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Millie Bobby Brown

as Elodie

About the Character

Brown plays Elodie, the titular damsel who finds herself plunged into a dark and dangerous new world. Brown is no stranger to complex characters touched by tragic circumstances. Whether it’s her haunting portrayal of Eleven in Stranger Things or the courageous Enola Holmes, the actor has had her share of adventures. Still, Damsel ups the stakes, delivering a side of Brown you’ve never seen before.

 

“After I read the script, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve never done anything where I haven’t been able to share the load,’ ” Brown said. “Because everything I do, I’m able to co-exist with someone else. With Stranger Things, I have wonderful castmates that I’m able to depend on. And then with Enola Holmes, I’m able to depend on Henry Cavill or Louis Partridge. But with Damsel, it was this realization: ‘Oh my goodness, it’s just me. I have to be there every day, and I have to give myself fully every day.’ ”

 

“We were so lucky to have Millie,” Fresnadillo adds. “She’s a very charismatic, sparkling personality. She has that quality that only stars have, which is you cannot take your eyes off her. She has the ability in this movie, in such a magical way, to bring the audience into her journey and take them into that kind of dark, intense, and thrilling adventure that she’s having. She’s the heart of the movie.”

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Ray Winstone

as Lord Bayford

About the Character

Elodie’s father is a reluctant enabler of her arranged marriage; her hefty dowry will help their kingdom survive another winter. 

 

He’s played by gruff character actor Ray Winstone, who found himself disagreeing with his character’s choices. “Lord Bayford’s kind of a mixed-up man,” Winstone told Netflix. “He’s got a choice to make between his daughter and the welfare of his people and the choice seems like an obvious one to me — you choose your daughter, your blood — but I guess as a leader he has more responsibility and the crown weighs heavily on him.”

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Nick Robinson

as Prince Henry

About the Character

Robinson is Elodie’s fair-on-the-outside, not-so-fair-on-the-inside prince. The pair hit it off before he tosses her down a steep shaft into the dragon’s den — so much for young love.

 

“We wanted him to be a morally ambiguous character with his own sense of duty and honor and tradition, while knowing all along that these rituals are not right,” Robinson told Netflix. “This is all compounded by the fact that he begins to see Elodie for who she is — a special, vibrant person — and starts to develop feelings for her, so it makes it even harder for him to ultimately make that decision.”

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Angela Bassett 

as Lady Bayford

About the Character

Lady Bayford is Elodie’s stepmother, a working class woman who has now risen to a position of nobility.. 

 

“She’s the daughter of a humble ropemaker, and has become a Lady through marriage, so she has an intelligence that allows her to sense, see, and pay attention to details,” Bassett told Netflix. “And she can because she’s had to be scrappy in her life. She might be a Lady in fine apparel, but she’s never forgotten her roots.” 

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Robin Wright

as Queen Isabelle

About the Character

Queen Isabelle is the queen of Orea, Elodie’s future mother-in-law, and the person pulling all the strings of her current predicament. She’s played by Robin Wright, who has plenty of experience playing royalty; she was, of course, Princess Buttercup in the beloved classic The Princess Bride. 

 

“She’s able to appear charming to lure the victims in, as is her task,” Wright told Netflix. “She’s also creative in her designs, the web she weaves, to trap the sacrificial lambs. She makes Elodie feel it’s a privilege that she was chosen, and then her barbs come out!”  

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Brooke Carter

as Floria

About the Character

Young actor Brooke Carter plays Elodie’s innocent younger sister, Floria. 

 

“Floria represents the kind of traditional fairy tale that we decided to shake up,” Fresnadillo said. “Brooke was so professional and sparkling. She portrayed all these traditional values that flesh out the fables we know by heart and I think it was important to have that in this story.”

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Where was Damsel filmed?

Exterior shots of Aurea’s castle grounds and mountains were filmed in Portugal, and Damsel’s digitally created castle was modeled on the country’s unique Manueline architecture. “It’s warmer and more flamboyant than the gloomy castles that are typically used for fantasy stories with dragons,” production designer Patrick Tatopoulos said. “And that was the trick: Aurea needed to be a very pleasant place to be on the outside.”

On the inside, of course, it’s another matter entirely. The majority of Damsel’s locations were practically built cave sets. “We filmed in these warehouses in London,” Brown said. “When you walked in, you truly felt immersed. There was no faking it.” Indeed, the production designed a full seven separate caverns as part of the dragon’s maze-like cave system. Tatopoulos even put together a map of the following caves, using Mazeau’s script as a guide. 

• The Entrance Cave: As close as the caves come to the natural world, with a tree and a scant amount of moss subsisting on light from the sacrificial bridge above.
• The Bird Cave: A long cavern where Elodie sees birds in flames, with massive stalactites and stalagmites forming an illusion of teeth. 
• The Twisted Tunnel: A tight space where Elodie finds herself crawling through a close-quarters shaft like Bruce Willis in Die Hard.
• The Glow Worm Cave: Inspired by the bioluminescent worms of New Zealand’s Waitomo caves, the glow worms are a source of healing respite for Elodie.
• The Womb Cave: Elodie discovers the dark past of the kingdom of Aurea when she comes across messages left behind by previous princesses in this cave.
• The Crystal Shaft: The production built a segment of the shaft so that Brown and her stunt double could practically climb it; VFX extensions provided the rest.
• The Temple Cave: The cave where Elodie has her final confrontation with the dragon was referred to as the Temple Cave by the team because of its Romanesque columns. “You’re at the bottom of this circus, almost like a gladiator,” said Tatopoulos. “There’s a sense of them being at the bottom of the pit with those steps everywhere.”

Who voices the dragon in Damsel?

The voice of the fearsome dragon (yes, she talks) is provided by Iranian-American actor Shohreh Aghdashloo. It was a challenge for Aghdashloo to get into character as a scaly beast, but she ultimately found her way into the character.

“It wasn’t hard to imagine that I could have, or would have been, a dragon in past life,” Aghdashloo told Netflix. “But I have to admit that it became pretty challenging when I got to the sound studio and started following her steps through the forest while voicing her, for dragons can only move forward, not backward.”

The Voice Behind Damsel’s Dragon Will Enchant You

Listen to Millie Bobby Brown on Skip Intro

In a new episode of the podcast Skip Intro, Brown tells host Krista Smith what she hopes women take away from the film. “You can be a princess in your own way,” she says. “You don't have to be saved by the prince all the time. Although princes are great, and we love them, and they're very handsome, it's nice to be able to be a warrior, too.” You can listen to the full conversation right here. 

Did Millie Bobby Brown do her own stunts in Damsel?

Yes. Brown did quite a bit of her own stuntwork, which you can catch a glimpse of in a behind-the-scenes video released ahead of the film. In the clip, Brown is lifted by a giant “tuning fork” held suspended on wires against a practically built cliff face, and can be seen doing plenty of fancy sword work. “I felt like a warrior!” she says triumphantly. Go off, Millie. 

When is Damsel coming to Netflix?

Damsel is now streaming on Netflix. Above all, Fresnadillo hopes that you will keep an open mind as you approach the film. “This is a journey that’s going to take you into a universe that you thought you knew. But we are discovering a new take on fairy tales and fantasy adventures.” 

Brown agrees. “Elodie becomes someone so unbelievably different from who she is at the beginning,” she said. “She becomes this woman that she didn’t know she could become. And I think that is a huge storyline that so many women and young girls will be able to relate to.” Better tighten your corsets and sharpen your swords.

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