$100K to represent Eleven? 'Stranger Things' have happened

LOS ANGELES -- If you owned a talent agency, would you pay $100,000 for the right to represent Millie Bobby Brown, the breakout star of Stranger Things who plays Eleven on the hit Netflix series?

Because that's exactly what her father, Robert "Bobby" Brown, is asking from agencies, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Normally, actors hire agents to help make them money. They don't ask the agency to pay them directly. That feels like something straight out of the backwards world of the Upside Down.

Of course, the younger Brown has a ton of heat in Hollywood right now thanks to Stranger Things. However, she's currently represented by talent manager Melanie Greene and doesn't have a U.S. agent -- and before you ask, yes, agents and managers do very different things.

The $100,000 demand, which amounts to a signing fee, is highly unusual in Hollywood, and it would set a strange precedent for agencies eager to sign new talent. Would every hot young YouTube star begin demanding a similar fee? It doesn't take a veteran dealmaker to see the Pandora's box of problems this could open.

Brown is only 12 years old and she has a bright future, but she can't allow her father to make demands at this early yet crucial stage of her career. THR says Brown's father has claimed he was only half-serious and that he asked for the upfront fee on the advice of a non-industry friend, but he doesn't deny floating the $100,000 figure.

There's no doubt that Brown's parents have spent a lot of money getting her to this point, so it's understandable that they'd want to be reimbursed for those sacrifices, but they need to have faith that any agency Millie chooses will help her make back that money, be it with endorsements or more acting jobs. Heck, she might even have a career as a singer, given recent clips that have gone viral on social media.

Hopefully Brown's father will let the agency signing process run its course, because it's complicated enough. Stranger Things fans would surely love to see more of her, but she's going to need an agent first.