Josh Hutcherson said the backlash he received online last year for not being a Taylor Swift fan is exactly why he’s been off the internet.
In a new interview with GQ, the offline-famous actor reflected on his re-entry into the world wide web last year during the press tour for Rachel Sennott’s HBO show, “I Love LA,” and one comment from Swift that infuriated him.
During a video interview with iD Magazine, Hutcherson and castmate Jordan Firstman played a game of camera roll roulette, and Hutcherson pulled out a photo of himself and his mother in the VIP section of Swift’s Era Tour in New Orleans. “My mother made me who I am,” Hutcherson said of the concert, and asked Firstman if he was a fan of the pop star. “I’m not Swifty,” Hutcherson replied. “Absolutely not. No shade. With all due respect, definitely not.”
This caused an uproar on social media, with some fans demanding that Hutcherson cancel his VIP tickets, claiming he had received them even though he wasn’t really a fan. In response to the backlash, Hutcherson told GQ, “I got a little heated because I did a photoshoot with Jordan, and he asked me something about being a[Taylor Swift fan]and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m definitely not Swift.'” “All of a sudden, there was a lot of people saying, ‘Fuck him! He’s a monster! Destroy him! He’s short! He hates her because she’s short!'” (He’s 5-foot-5.) I think she’s great. Her music is not my type of music. That’s why I don’t want to go online. ”
Since “I Love LA” came out, Hutcherson has returned to offline activities. “I don’t need that kind of energy,” he told GQ about limiting his social media presence. “This is counterintuitive to my job, because as people learn more about you, you can’t disappear into the character. They see you as, ‘Oh, it’s Josh.'” You know what I mean? So if you’re a shitty meme, people know you for that meme. ”
Hutcherson’s starring role as Peeta Mellark in the Hunger Games series has spawned quite a few memes, but Hutcherson is still a proud supporter of the films. “I could talk about ‘The Hunger Games’ all day long,” he said. “I think[these books]are great books. They’re great movies. They represent something important and real, especially in today’s world. The overwhelming themes of authoritarianism and violent government are very present. They didn’t listen to The Hunger Games.”
Although he acknowledged that the film “won’t change the world,” he told GQ that it raises “a pertinent warning about giving governments too much power and control.”
“About not standing up to authoritarians. About taking away civil rights and human rights. Being an American right now, it’s like…What the hell is going on?…The fact that we’re raiding ICE on the streets and funding wars. The fact that there are so many Americans who support that, and so many more Americans who don’t, makes me feel like an outsider in my own place. It’s like, how can we allow this?”
Sunrise on the Reaping, the prequel to the original film The Hunger Games, is scheduled to be released in November. It has been reported that Hutcherson’s Peeta and Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss will appear in the film’s flash-forward sequences, but the actors told GQ that they “could neither confirm nor unconfirm” whether they would appear in a cameo.
Read Hutcherson’s complete GQ profile here.
