Hudson Williams Is Finally Addressing His Letterboxd Scandal
This really was a wild moment.
There are a lot of unexpected twists that come with sudden fame, but Hudson Williams has experienced a pretty new phenomenon. Shortly after the Heated Rivalry actor became a breakout star, a bunch of Letterboxd reviews that users claimed were from his account went viral. Many of the reviews targeted popular films or actors, inciting a fair amount of online backlash and leading to thinkpieces about how honest celebrities can really be on public opinion sites like Letterboxd.
Williams stayed quiet on this whole situation at the time, but he has recently spoken about it for the first time, writing the “Letterboxd scandal” off as his first personal experience with “fake news.”
“There was a Letterboxd scandal,” Williams told Wonderland Magazine on Jan. 28. “So f*cking many Letterboxd reviews of mine that aren’t mine. I’ve seen one real Letterboxd review, and maybe like 25 fake ones.”
The actor clarified that he generally disagreed with the fake Letterboxd reviews that fans had just assumed he wrote. “Some of them are good, but they’re stupid. Some of them are really awful. And I’m like, I like that movie,” Williams said.
Williams described this fabricated backlash as one example of the rudeness he’s noticed in the public reaction to his sudden star power. “I didn’t think there would be as many disrespectful people as there are,” Williams said. “There are disrespectful people who are just like, ‘F*ck that guy.’ And I’m like, holy sh*t. Why are people hating on me? There’s also all this fake news about me. And I’m like, ‘How do I already have fake news?’”
Williams isn’t the only Heated Rivalry star who’s had to deal with his past online presence being dug up by fans. Connor Storrie’s old YouTube channel also went viral shortly after the show’s success. Unlike his co-star, Storrie’s posts were undeniably real, but he embraced his younger self getting the spotlight.
“I love that little guy. I love him. I used to not like him,” Storrie said in a Dec. 26 Variety interview. “I was this artist, sissy boy in West Texas that didn’t want to play football. I wanted to play pretend and play dress up and disappear into weird worlds and entertain and try to connect with people that way, and that was just not the norm out there.”
