Will Poulter revealed in a recent GQ magazine interview that he was mistaken for the Toy Story villain Sid by a moviegoer during a recent trip to Los Angeles.
The actor, who recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, spoke out on often being reduced to his physical attributes by the media and fans. Poulters transition from goofy Were the Millers teens to Marvel heartthrob has gotten plenty of attention over the last few years.
A guy at a urinal in L.A. last week turned to me and said, Youre inToy Story, right? And I was like, Well, that was animated,' Poulter said. I dont want to be rude. I also appreciate theres a meme going round of me I dressed up as Sid fromToy Storyfor anti-bullying week. So arguably I havent helped my case. But [Toy Storycame out in] 1995. I was two. And they werent doing it through live action.
As Poulter noted, he dressed up as the Toy Story bully in 2017 and posted photos of the costume to his Twitter account. The actor was raising awareness for the anti-bullying organization Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and asked his followers to give the group a like or a donation.
Its funny when things trend like that on the Internet, all context is lost and a big one is talking about overnight transformations, Poulter continued. The one that went viral in relation to me was a picture of me inWere The Millersnext to a picture of me inGuardians. Theres literally 10 years between those two pictures but people dont even realize it. Someone in the pub two days ago said, Oh, youve had a glow up. Congrats. Its 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!'
Poulter said its hard to not take it as a backhanded compliment when people talk about his change in physical appearance over the years.
It was weird when people started to debate my physical appearance online as to whether it was deemed attractive or unattractive, the actor said. I am very comfortable and secure in the knowledge that Im not conventionally attractive as Ive always had remarks about looking unusualwhether its 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 peoples physical appearance? Especially in the case of women. But whether youre male or female, why is that the focus so much? Unfortunately, social media has created this problematic idea that everyones opinion on everything matters equally.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theaters nationwide.