Barry Keoghan says sickening social media trolls reverted to calling him a "deadbeat dad" when he started posting less of his son online.
The 'Saltburn' star became a father two years ago to his and ex-partner Alyson Kierans' son Brando, and the 32-year-old actor recently opened up about his own absent father and how he doesn't have a “normal father-son relationship” with his little boy because he didn't have a "blueprint" to take from his own dad.
And he admits that if he didn't have a "tough skin", he wouldn't be able to cope with the number of nasty comments he gets on social media, particularly the ones accusing him of being an "absent father".
Appearing on 'The Louis Theroux Podcast', he said: “There’s a lot online. If I didn’t have tough skin or the strength to have, I wouldn’t be sitting here.
“Of course, [his childhood is] going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from. People just read that [as] laziness and go, ‘Oh, that’s no excuse to be an absent father.’ I’m not an absent father. But it’s just, again, people love to use my son as ammunition or whatever.”
He continued: “And it kind of leads me to stop, the more attention I’ve [gotten] lately and the more in the public I’ve become, the less I’ve posted about my child, because I don’t think it’s fair to put my child online. And because I reigned that in, people draw a narrative and go, ‘Absent father, s***, deadbeat dad,’ and more disgusting things I wouldn’t even repeat. Just the audacity of some people, man. It sickens me, makes me furious.”
When Louis suggested Barry should stop going on social media, he insisted he's "curious" about the "slander" being spread about his character and his appearance.
However, he has used the blocked words feature so he doesn't see the comments that affect him the most.
He said: “When I’ve got a bit of time, I am a curious being like all of us, and you want to know what [people are saying online], especially when it’s slander and when it’s bad comments attacking my appearance or attacking me as a father.
“I’ve even blocked out certain words because I don’t want to read that. Stuff like my son – people don’t deserve to put that in a sentence, anything. I’m just trying to make a living, trying to get a good body of work and create safety for my child.”
