Matthew Modine didn’t give his “Stranger Things” co-star Millie Bobby Brown and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, a wedding gift.
“She doesn’t need anything,” Modine told Page Six of the 21-year-old actress during a recent interview for his new show, “Zero Day.”
Modine explained that part of the reason he didn’t buy a present was because he believes that possessions are just things and “things give you no gratification.”
He even brought up the US Constitution’s phrase “the pursuit of happiness” to further explain his no-gift policy, espousing that “happiness” to him doesn’t mean accumulating presents but rather trying to “be kind” and “be the best citizen you can [be].”
However, Modine, 65, gave Brown a more meaningful and memorable wedding gift by officiating the ceremony.
The actress and Jon Bon Jovi’s son, 22, wed in a lavish Italian ceremony in October 2024, four months after exchanging vows during a much more “low-key” ceremony.
Presiding over the shindig was a meaningful experience for the “Full Metal Jacket” actor, who was later overheard gushing about the event to celebrity chef Nobu Matshuhisa.
“He let him know he’d just gotten back from Italy, and how much fun he had doing it. He seemed really proud, and into it,” a spy told Page Six at the time.
Modine, who plays a sinister “Papa” to Brown in “Stranger Things,” is also a father figure of sorts in real life.
“There’s ups and downs in a career. I’ve had conversations with Millie and the others,” he told The Times in 2022. “And I try to help them to understand they are on a rollercoaster. And the higher you go in your career, the more that drop will feel really, really frightening.”
He also called his bond with Brown “a friendship I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” in a People 2024 interview.
Meanwhile, Modine has been busy in non-“Stranger Things” projects. The latest is a corrupt Senator in “Zero Day.”
However, playing morally ambivalent characters is not something he relishes.
“I don’t enjoy playing venal characters at all,” he exclaimed, before sharing that his father was a drive-in theater manager and “I grew up watching movies, and all I ever wanted to be as an actor was somebody who’s solving problems, not someone who’s creating problems!”
Modine explained that while playing a bad guy “your body doesn’t know it’s acting so if you’re doing something that’s rather toxic, you’re kind of poisoning your body…your body’s going through a kind of trauma and I don’t enjoy that.”
The political thriller also stars Robert De Niro, Joan Allen, Jesse Plemons, Connie Britton and Lizzy Caplan.
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