Will Poulter has revealed that he was recently mistaken for the Toy Story villain Sid.
The actor, who recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, spoke out about being reduced to his physical attributes by the media and fans.
“A guy at a urinal in L.A. last week turned to me and said, ‘You’re in Toy Story, right?’ And I was like, ‘Well, that was animated,’” Poulter told GQ.
“I don’t want to be rude. I also appreciate there’s a meme going round of me — I dressed up as Sid from ‘Toy Story’ for anti-bullying week. So arguably I haven’t helped my case. But [Toy Story came out in] 1995. I was two. And they weren’t doing it through live action.”
Poulter dressed as the Toy Story bully in 2017 and posted photos on his Twitter account. The actor was raising awareness for the ant-bullying organisation Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, and asked his followers to support the cause with donations.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN pic.twitter.com/et8nbbd1Em
— Will Poulter (@PoulterWill) October 29, 2017
Poulter went on to note that the media and fans often make remarks about his appearance and attractiveness.
“It’s funny — when things trend like that on the Internet, all context is lost and a big one is talking about overnight transformations,” the actor continued. “The one that went viral in relation to me was a picture of me in We’re The Millers next to a picture of me in Guardians.
“There’s literally 10 years between those two pictures but people don’t even realise it. Someone in the pub two days ago said, ‘Oh, you’ve had a glow up. Congrats.’ It’s a little bit hard to not accept that as, ‘You were ugly for the best part of your life, and now things are looking up a bit!’”
He added: “It was weird when people started to debate my physical appearance online as to whether it was deemed attractive or unattractive. I am very comfortable and secure in the knowledge that I’m not conventionally attractive as I’ve always had remarks about looking unusual — whether it’s my eyebrows or whatever else, people have made a thing of that.
“I think it just speaks to a wider issue, of: Why are we discussing or spending so much time discussing people’s physical appearance? Especially in the case of women. But whether you’re male or female, why is that the focus so much? Unfortunately, social media has created this problematic idea that everyone’s opinion on everything matters equally.”
Elsewhere, Chris Pratt recently revealed that he’d be willing to return to the role of Star-Lord, despite director James Gunn leaving the Guardians Of The Galaxy franchise.