Barry Keoghan, who departed social media in 2024, said in an interview on SiriusXM’s Hits 1 that he did so in large part due to overwhelming abuse.
“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,” the actor admitted.
Keoghan, who will play Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ Beatles films, began the conversation, published Friday, by expressing gratitude for his fans.
“I’ve been blessed that I’ve got an incredible fan base, and people are so lovely out there,” he said. “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.”
Unfortunately, he added, that doesn’t always extend to everyone he encounters, online or off.
“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,” Keoghan added. “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?”
Keoghan said that the negativity has even kept him from attending events.
“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,” the actor said. “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.”
At times, he’s even worried it could impact his desire to act. “But when that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem, because then you don’t want to even be on screen anymore,” Keoghan continued. “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.”
Rumors of Keoghan’s casting caught the attention of Starr in November 2024. The drummer told Entertainment Weekly that the decision was “great” and added, “I think he’s somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many,” Starr shared.
“You gotta let them get their own feel. I did a MasterClass, and we were talking about, ‘You know, I’m not asking you to play like me, but you have to have this movement that you can do this stuff.’”
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