No one can be “on” all the time, which makes celebrity life an impossible conundrum. For those with the spotlight on them 24/7, every lapse is seen as potentially career-ending — all it takes is one unfavorable interaction to end up on Hollywood’s cutting room floor.
A recent interaction between The Office‘s Rainn Wilson and a YouTuber and TikToker named Liah Yoo (@liahyoo) threatens Wilson with that potential future, after Yoo walked away from a brief meet-and-greet feeling slighted. Footage of her interaction with the beloved comedian is circulating on social media, and prompting demands that the 58-year-old apologize.
It’s hard to pin down exactly why the interaction goes off the rails, but Wilson has long been known for being a bit prickly in public. He’s often disgruntled by The Office fans and their devotion to his character, Dwight Schrute, and between that reputation and the stress of running a food cart, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Wilson really was short and rude when speaking with Yoo.
Over less than two minutes of video, Yoo explains things from her perspective, before showing a clip of her “mean” interaction with the 58-year-old star. She noted that she, along with a slew of other content creators, were invited to kick off Climate Week New York with a visit to Wilson’s Vegan Hot Dog Activation.
When she got to the front of the line to order her upsettingly-named vegan hot dog — she was hoping for one called “If the fashion industry were a country, it would be one of the world’s largest carbon emitters, responsible for a staggering 10% of global carbon emissions; more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined” — Wilson was undeniably frosty with Yoo, leaving the content creator to depart feeling “not so nice.”
Throughout the interaction, Wilson comes across as short and irritable. He repeatedly cuts Yoo off, at first seemingly rushed, but later prolonging the interaction through questions and short bursts of conversation. Yoo ultimately left the hot dog stand with no long-winded vegan dog and a pit in her stomach.
The video has since gone comfortably, but unassumingly, viral on Yoo’s page, where it’s racked up more than 550,000 views and tens of thousands of likes. In her comment section, people expressed outrage on Yoo’s behalf, and that outcry soon spread to Wilson’s own socials. On Instagram, where he’s been frequently sharing shout-outs to his climate activism and the vegan hot dog push, comments are filtering in with criticism for the star. Numerous people are calling on the 58-year-old to apologize, with quite a few calling him out as “rude” and “disrespectful.”
The discussion of how celebrities react to their fans got a fresh injection of energy recently, thanks in large part to the rise of Chappell Roan. The Gen-Z sensation rocketed to fame over the last few months, and she’s speaking out against the expectation that celebrities are not human. She called out her own fans for their “obsessive” actions, noting that she’s “allowed to say no to creepy behavior.”
This same discussion can be applied to Wilson, but there’s a catch — yes, he deserves peace, privacy, and a place to be himself (even his rude self) in peace, but he wasn’t just perusing about in public here. He was at a scheduled and planned appearance, speaking with invited people, and he still reacted in a negative way. It’s certainly not enough to lose him many fans, and it’s sure not going to get him cancelled, but it may make some fans think twice before approaching the comedian.
