In movies and series, there are roles that are written to be hated. However, some viewers often struggle to separate the role from the actor. This is now happening to an actor from House of the Dragon, who has to limit his Instagram comments.
What happened? In House of the Dragon, Fabien Frankel plays Sir Criston Cole. A character who, after the current episode, is receiving hate from the fandom. However, this affects not only the character but also the actor on social media.
As Culture Crave posts on X, Frankel had to limit his Instagram comments. In the comments, the actor is attacked for the actions of his role. This ranges from I hate you, Criston
to people hoping he would be attacked.
If you now look at Criston’s Instagram account, the comments are limited. Especially with controversial roles, you can often assume that a wave of hate will follow, as MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski describes here: The actress playing Abby for the “The Last of Us” series is confirmed and I’m already worried about her
He’s not an isolated case
In the comments on the tweet by Culture Crave, many do not understand how one cannot separate the roles from the actor.
- @Stop_Hammerzeit:
Do these people also believe that the Death Star is real when watching Star Wars?
- @ExeAlebs:
Why do fans do this? They are just actors.
- @dinmurdock:
I would take it as a compliment if I acted so well that people held me responsible for my character’s actions.
For most, the separation between actor and role seems self-evident, but the current case is not an isolated one. Especially due to social media, such things can escalate.
An example in this case would also be Kelly Marie Tran, who was subjected to a large wave of hate for her role as Rose in Star Wars: Episode 8, as she recounts in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. She also mentions that John Boyega and Daisy Ridley experienced similar treatment in Episode 7.
It is noticeable that this often happens with large franchises where people are very emotional. You can see this with Game of Thrones and Star Wars. But similar phenomena can also be observed in series like 13 Reasons Why or Baby Reindeer. Another well-known actor was hated for his role in an animated film: Why the internet hates the idea of Chris Pratt now voicing Mario
