"Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" Star Charlie Wright Says That Playing Rodrick "Ruined" His Career
If you're a fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies, you know Charlie Wright, who played Rodrick in the film franchise's fourth installment, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul.
I'm going to be totally honest with you: The Long Haul — which was, as of this writing, the final live-action installment in the Wimpy Kid franchise — was not a success. Critics didn't like it, and it made $40 million worldwide off of a reported $20 million budget, which is not great by Hollywood standards.
To make matters worse, it sounds as if the film also had a pretty negative impact on Charlie's career.
In a recent YouTube video titled "Life as #NotMyRodrick," Charlie revealed that the backlash to his being cast as Rodrick turned into a meme that made pursuing a career in acting much, much harder. “Let’s just say that when the world found out I was playing Rodrick, they weren’t very happy,” he said.
Along with memes came hurtful messages and death threats, as well as the #NotMyRodrick hashtag. Charlie also revealed that he still receives death threats to this day.
“Do I have any hatred or anger towards people who participated in the #NotMyRodrick thing? No, I don’t," he said. "I did go through a depressive episode for almost three years afterwards and it kind of ruined my acting career, but I’m still alive. I’m still here.”
Charlie also said that the most difficult part of all the hate he received for playing Rodrick was "that I felt like I hadn’t really done anything to deserve it."
"Granted, the movie wasn’t great, and maybe some people hated my performance, but I acted my little ass off in that movie, okay?" he stated. "And to have people saying that they wished I was dead just for doing my job and being in a movie was kind of crazy. You know, being a teenager at the time, and no one was really there to guide me through it or, like, help me, really."
"I just had to suck it up and deal with it. I had to kind of figure it out on my own, and, you know, it took me three years to finally let go and move on.”
You can watch Charlie's entire video here.
