Barry Keoghan Says Hate About His Looks Made Him "Not Want To Go Outside"

Barry Keoghan is opening about about the toll the recent negative comments about his appearance have taken on him. The actor, who debuted a shaggy-haired new look for his upcoming The Beatles movie earlier this year, said he’s see “a nasty side” of social media that’s caused him to retreat from the public eye when he can. It’s gotten so bad, Keoghan said, that he even worries it might cause him to not want to be on the big screen anymore.

Keoghan spoke about the downsides of being in the spotlight during his March 20 appearance on SiriusXM’s The Morning Mash Up. "I think I 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," Keoghan said. "There's a lot of hate online. It's a lot of abuse of how I look."

The statement came shortly after a viral tweet about how Keoghan covered his face at the Oscars after-party when taking a photo with his Saltburn co-star Jacob Elordi. Keoghan went on to explain that he feels much less comfortable in public spaces due to all the online chatter.

"It's made me shy away," Keoghan 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," he continued. "So yeah, I don't have to hide away because I am hiding away. I don't have to go to places because I actually don't go to places because of these things. But when that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem because then you don't even want to be on screen anymore."

Keoghan added that the most disheartening part of it all is thinking about his three-year-old son Brando growing up and seeing all the negativity in the future. "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."