One of the actors behind the Scotland-based “Willy Wonka” themed exhibit that went viral this week is speaking out with her take on the whole debacle.
Kirsty Paterson, an actor hired to play an Oompa Loompa in the experience, spoke to several outlets about a photo of her making the rounds on social media. With her facial expression and and the overall aesthetics, the image has been compared to a “literal meth lab” on X.
Viral Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka Glasgow experience speaks to Vulture:
“I’m not going to lie or sugarcoat this: This has been quite a lot for me. I find it funny and I can make a humorous joke about it, but the flip side of this is that this is embarrassing for what I do,… pic.twitter.com/ibxAb1Huf2
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 29, 2024
“I’m not going to lie or sugarcoat this: This has been quite a lot for me,” Paterson told Vulture. “ I find it funny and I can make a humorous joke about it, but the flip side of this is that this is embarrassing for what I do, and I hope this doesn’t tarnish that. It’s as if it’s been edited.”
“Obviously, because it’s such an ugly photo, people were commenting on it and saying I look ugly or like a meth head,” she continued. “I found the negative comments really hard, but I do see the funny side of it. I know I’m all-right looking.”
Paterson also told MailOnline that she was upset with how the event looked compared to how it was advertised.
“I was angry at the time because I felt like this is embarrassing for me, and I felt bad for the people coming in as well,” the Scotland native told the outlet.
“I actually ended up shouting at the guy. I just said to him he’s a joke and this is like embarrassing, and how can we basically live with himself, doing this to people. This is really embarrassing for me. My job is teaching kids yoga and I go into schools and stuff and I do kids’ entertainment.”
“This is none of our faults at all. We got the job and then we got given the script,” Paterson added. “By that point, I’d signed a contract and they said they were going to pay us £500 for the two days which is a lot of money to say no to.”
The U.K. event, called “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” charged customers $44 per ticket and promised attendees that they’d visit “a universe where confectionary dreams are brought to life” with “mind-expanding projections” and “wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn!” But when customers arrived, they were shocked to find that the A.I. generated images advertising the event looked nothing like the actual venue.
Images of the lackluster event quickly went viral.
apparently this was sold as a live Willy Wonka Experience but they used all AI images on the website to sell tickets and then people showed up and saw this and it got so bad people called the cops lmao pic.twitter.com/tfkyg0G0WG
— Chris Alsikkan (@AlsikkanTV) February 26, 2024
Previously, actor Paul Connell, who was hired to work the event, said he was disappointed at the display. “My heart sank looking around … I just felt sad because I was aware of how many kids were going to be coming through,” he told STV News. “We were told to hand the kids a couple of jelly beans and a quarter cup of lemonade at the end.”
The event was put on by the event company House of Illuminati. Organizers have apologized after the images and videos went viral, calling the whole thing a “very stressful and frustrating day.”
“Unfortunately, last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realize we probably should have canceled first thing this morning instead,” the statement said. They also offered to refund everyone’s tickets.