It’s one thing to not like the casting choices for a movie — it’s another thing entirely to threaten death over them.
John Green, the superstar YouTube author who penned The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska is catching some serious blowback over the casting for the movie adaptation of Looking For Alaska — something, as John points out on Twitter, he is not even responsible for:
Death Threat
I. Do. Not. Cast. Movie. Adaptations. Of. My. Books. I am not a casting director. Please stop threatening to kill me.
— John Green (@johngreen) May 20, 2015
Amy Schumer
If I could cast the Looking for Alaska movie, @amyschumer would play every character, Nutty Professor-style. But I don’t make the decisions.
— John Green (@johngreen) May 20, 2015
While not pointed at John specifically (at least not the ones we could find), the alleged death threats and anger seem to revolve around YouTube musician/actress and ex-girlfriend of O2L’s Sam Potteroff Acacia Brinley being given an audition for the movie.
I JUST GOT AN AUDITION FOR A MOVIE THATS BASED ON ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS OH MY GOD
— Acacia Brinley (@AcaciaBrinley) May 14, 2015
Acacia was not confirmed to have a role in Looking For Alaska, a story about two friends trying to solve the death of another. As a result of the (SPOILER!) known plot point that Alaska, a girl, not a state in this context, dies in the book, fans have been using that to make snide asides about the actress rumored to be playing Alaska dying as well:
lol but doesn’t Alaska die in Looking for Alaska?? won’t Acacia Brinley die if she plays Alaska??
— dessie *lox* //exams (@booksandtears) May 20, 2015
While it seems likely that fans fears are confirmed after Acacia posted and then deleted an image of the script (which another Twitter user screencapped), it doesn’t mean people should resort to making threats. Kids or not, this sort of stuff is pretty unacceptable to say or to post to someone’s social media! This is the sort of bullying habits that you are all always rallying against or pledging not to partake in.
Yeah acacia is definitely alaska or is definitely in the movie pic.twitter.com/PfIYnilUOz
— | 11//99 | (@Jasminmooree) May 19, 2015
Check out these tweets on the matter:
If that is a looking for Alaska script I s2g ?????? https://t.co/dOIsyY8kye
— 10 days // siofs (@drummersirwin) May 20, 2015
i s2g if acacia brinley gets casted for looking for alaska I WILL KILL SOMEONE
— m. (@homeboyshawn) May 20, 2015
what the fuck accacia brinley as Alaska? kill me now ughh I hate the girl! stop
— SHADOWHUNTERS (@5secondsofbooks) May 20, 2015
Yikes!
Acacia Brinley
Frequently, we are taking creators to task over their use of their powers (or overuse) and their ability to sway fans. But that door goes both ways and creators shouldn’t be made to feel unsafe about the creative content they give the world.
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” should be a maxim on Twitter and the rest of social media as well.
