When actor Charlie Wright was cast as main character Rodrick Heffley in the fourth “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” live-action film, the Internet reacted with a #NotMyRodrick meme that the actor says “ruined my career.”
In a video posted Sunday to YouTube and TikTok, the now-25-year-0ld actor publicly spoke for the first time about the overwhelmingly negative reaction to him taking over the role originally played by Devon Bostick. “It kind of ruined my acting career, but I’m still alive. I’m still here.”
In the nine-minute video, Wright described the harsh response to the release of the first “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” trailer in early 2017. “Let’s just say that when the world found out I was playing Rodrick, they weren’t very happy.”
He shared some of the versions of the meme that compared him to Bostick, including one with the caption, “Name me a bigger downgrade,” as well as a message that read, “I was hoping u were dead.” Wright added that he wasn’t sure if people were mad that Bostick had been replaced, or if “they just didn’t like me.”
“The random death threats were a little disturbing, I’ll be honest,” he said, admitting to having “a depressive episode for almost three years” after the film came out.
Wright also noted that no one helped him deal with the Internet hatred at the time: “I just had to suck it up and deal with it, I had to figure it out on my own and it took me three years to finally let go and move on.”
The actor most recently played Teen Kevyn in the Showtime series “Yellowjackets,” the younger version of the cop character played by Alex Wyndham. Meanwhile, Bostick’s last role was as physicist Seth Neddermeyer in Best Picture winner “Oppenheimer.” He also played recurring characters on “The 100,” “Fubar” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Watch the video above.
