Actor Barry Keoghan reported in a recent interview that online hate and harassment have made him reluctant to go outside or work anymore. The Saltburn star endured intense backlash from Sabrina Carpenter fans after the pair broke up, and he's still struggling with the desire to hide away.
This could be a cause for concern among those eagerly awaiting his role as Ringo in The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event.
Barry Keoghan struggles with the spotlight
During an interview with Ben Harlum on Sirius XM, posted to YouTube on Friday, Keogham grew candid about how hard it is to go out in public anymore.
"I’ve been blessed that I’ve got an incredible fan base and people are so lovely out there," the actor started. "It’s really nice when you do Q&As, and you talk to people, and you can be there with them."
"There is also a nasty side of it. I removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being. I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. It’s not nice. There’s a lot of hate online, it’s a lot of abuse of how I look."
After breaking up with Carpenter in 2024, her fans went pretty wild on the guy. Keogham reported receiving threats against himself, his young son, and his grandmother from these people. He even claimed some had stood outside the house where the two-year-old and his mother, ex-girlfriend Alyson Kierans, lived.
Said fans claimed and maintain that he cheated on Carpenter, but the attacks on his appearance have nothing to do with that. Keogham does have an unusual look, which still tends to make anyone in a superficial world a target, but his fame amplified the problem.
"It’s kind of past the point of like you know ‘everyone goes through that,’ and everyone does, but it’s made me shy away," he continued. "It’s made me really go inside myself, not want to attend places, not want to go outside."
"When that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem, because then you don’t want to you don’t want to even be on screen anymore."
Thankfully, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is already out in U.K. theaters and on Netflix.
"Attacking how someone looks crosses a line"
On X, certain Carpenter fans jumped to blame Keogham for his own fate, citing the alleged cheating.
"Shouldn’t have [expletive] over Sabrina Carpenter idk," said @cuntinbrooklyn.
Many others, however, condemned these comments and bullying people for their looks in general.
"People feel entitled to comment on someone’s face like it’s a product. Then they talk about mental health," wrote @elchinchorrord. "The problem isn’t him… It’s the normalization of bullying disguised as 'opinion.'”
"Criticism of work is one thing, but attacking how someone looks crosses a line," said @alabiopeyemi2. "No one deserves to feel uncomfortable leaving their home because of online hate."
"The internet got way too comfortable treating real people like comment sections with faces," @SheKnowsScience pointed out. "Saying this out loud takes more strength than the people mocking him will ever admit."
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