Irish actor Barry Keoghan said on Tuesday (March 24th) that negative online messages about his physical appearance have caused him to withdraw “into himself” and even question his future in acting.
“There’s a lot of abuse about the way I look and it’s gone past the point where you say ‘everyone goes through it’. Yes, everyone goes through it, but it made me withdraw.”he said, according to The Independent.
“It made me close in on myself and not want to go to events anymore”
The actor says that although he tries to withdraw from the online environment, he comes back out of curiosity to see the reactions to his appearances, but he faces many negative comments.
“I don’t have to hide, but I do. I don’t have to go to certain places, but I really don’t because of these things anymore. But when that starts to seep into your art, it becomes a problem, because you end up not wanting to be on screen anymore.”
Keoghan also expressed concern that the negative comments could one day affect his three-year-old son Brando, who he has with ex-partner Alyson Sandro.
“It’s disappointing for the fans, but it’s even more disappointing that my little boy will have to read all this stuff when he grows up.”he said.
The actor in the movie “The Banshees of Inisherin” has reacted to online hate in the past. In December 2024, he asked people, in a post on X, “be respectful”following criticism following his split from singer Sabrina Carpenter.
“I can only take it up to a point. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I don’t usually respond to”he wrote then. “I have to answer now because it’s gone too far.”
Keoghan is currently appearing in the new film ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ as Erasmus ““Duke” Shelby, son of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy). Recently, he also shot for Sam Mendes’ project, “The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event”, with Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn playing John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
