After exiting social media in 2024, Barry Keoghan recently got candid about the toll online abuse has taken on his career.
The Oscar nominee, who has been filming his part of the Sam Mendes’ Beatles cinematic event as Ringo Starr, said social media “hate” about his looks is “becoming a problem” for his desire to take onscreen roles, making him “shy away” from the public eye.
“I’ve been blessed that I’ve got an incredible fan base, and people are so lovely out there,” he prefaced on SiriusXM’s Hits 1. “It’s really nice when you do Q&As and you talk to people and you can be there with them and answer their questions and give them all of you. And that is the good side of it.”
Keoghan continued, “But there’s also a nasty side of it. And I’ve removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being that wants to go on. And if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it’s not nice, you know?
“There’s a lot of hate online. There’s a lot of abuse of how I look, and it’s kind of past the point of — you know, ‘Everyone goes through that.’ And everyone does, but it’s made me shy away. It’s made me really go inside myself, not want to attend places, not want to go outside. And I say this being absolute pure and honest to you. It’s becoming a problem,” he said.
The Saltburn star said he’s been “hiding away” over the abuse. “I actually don’t go to places because of these things,” Keoghan noted.
“But when that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem, because then you don’t want to even be on screen anymore,” he said, adding: “It is disappointing for the fans, but it’s also disappointing that my little boy has to read all of this stuff when he gets older.”
With Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man debuting this weekend on Netflix, Keoghan has recently been filming The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, along with Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn. Next, he’s set to star in Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam with Riley Keough and Harry Melling.