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. Poulter’s transition from goofy “We’re 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, ‘You’re in“Toy Story,” right?’ And I was like, ‘Well, that was animated,'” Poulter said. “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.”
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.
“It’s 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 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 realize 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!'”
Poulter said “it’s 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 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.”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
