PUSHING LIMITS FOR LIKES
HOW ONLINE CONTENT CREATORS ARE GOING TO NEW LENGTHS AT HOLLYWOOD’S EXPENSE
AT THE PEOPLE’S Choice Awards in February, film stars were making the usual red-carpet rounds. Among them was Barbie’s America Ferrera, who was nominated for, and would later win, Movie Performance Of The Year. Pausing in front of Tiktok celebrity interviewer Harry Daniels, her face twisted in confusion as she uncomfortably mused, “Oh my God. Both? I don’t know,” before being hurried away. The question? “Would you prefer a gay son or thot daughter?”
This intentionally provocative, somewhat baffling question (“thot”, for those out of the loop, is a term used to describe sexually promiscuous women), is one of the latest examples of content creators pushing Hollywood’s buttons in the name of engagement. Daniels is one of the more successful, garnering millions of likes on Tiktok (69.5 million to date) for his red-carpet targeting of major-league talent. “Not you!” Oscarnominated musician Billie Eilish shouted upon seeing him at the same awards, then walked away laughing as Daniels called after her. The short clip has been watched 23.1 million times.
A recent wave of Tiktokers, meanwhile, are using a newly famous filming location to up their audience. After user Rhian Williams posted two instructional videos on how to visit Drayton House — the grand estate used in Saltburn that cast and crew were forbidden from naming — creators flocked to the Northamptonshire location with phones poised. The persistent influencers made headlines when more than 50 ventured beyond the public footpath that runs through the estate onto private property to take photos and videos. “I never envisaged the amount of interest there would be. It’s quite weird,” owner Charles Stopford Sackville said of the intruders. “I don’t take it as flattering.”
In the case of Drayton House, Sackville has deployed staff to escort fans from the premises. But as Youtube prankster Lizwani proved by successfully gatecrashing the stage during Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas’ Oppenheimer Best Film win at the BAFTAS, it’s not always that easy. Hollywood has reaped some serious rewards from social media; lest we forget the time Martin Scorsese correctly explained what “threw shade” means on his daughter Francesca’s Tiktok account. But as long as creators continue to push and overstep boundaries, the future of the film industry’s intersection with social-media personalities looks murkier than a tub of Saltburn bathwater.