Wentworth Miller Hijacks His Own Meme to Spread a More Important Message
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| justjared.com |
Since then, as well as continuing his acting career (and branching into screenwriting), he has done an enormous amount of outreach work to help others like him, particular with the ManKind project. Recently, a meme featuring images of him started to circulate, two side by side - a promotional image of him from Prison Break, and one of him from 2010, with a full head of hair and somewhat heavier set. The captions used with the images vary, but they're all along the same basic theme: letting yourself go, lack of self control, that kind of thing. As much as I abhor the term 'body shaming', it applies here. For example, The LAD Bible went with 'When you break out of prison and find out about McDonald's Monopoly'.
Today I found myself the subject of an Internet meme. Not for the first time. This one, however, stands out from the...
Posted by Wentworth Miller on Monday, 28 March 2016
Typically, when you see the same kind of thing with other celebs, they either ignore it or it passes them by, but Miller most certainly saw this, and wasn't about to let it go unaddressed. In a stirring Facebook post, Miller explained that at the time when the picture was taken, he was in one of the worst lows of his adult life (2010 shortly after Prison Break had finished airing, 3 years from coming out), and as such, he had been comfort eating. On that particular day he'd been out for a hike with a friend and was unexpectedly ambushed by paps.
He goes on to say that while the images were hurtful to see published on magazine covers, and somewhat upsetting to see resurfacing now, he's been able to reassign their meaning to the strength he summoned up in order to cope with the struggle. Since he started talking openly about his personal issues, Miller has been astoundingly forthright about what he's been through, even speaking at a Human Rights Campaign dinner about how he'd tried to kill himself at age 15, and that he'd done so again since.
He closes out the short essay by urging those suffering similar issues to speak to someone, along with links to several suicide prevention and mental health charity pages. Suffice to say, Miller's post is now circulating far more widely than the original ever did, having been shared over 100,000 times at time of writing. The LAD Bible have even come forward with an apology to Miller, stating that they never intended to make light of such serious issues, lauding his response and then, in turn, posting the same links, plus a few extra.
Wentworth Miller,We posted two pictures of you last night to our Facebook page, but today we want to say we’ve got...
Posted by The LAD Bible on Tuesday, 29 March 2016
With this response, Miller has aptly demonstrated that, although it would be perfectly reasonable to approach this kind of thing angrily, it can fitted to a far better, more significant purpose. It's good to see that The LAD Bible responded with a respectful apology, and an endorsement of his message, and hopefully, it may even reach people who really need the help.
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @Songbird_Callum
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Wentworth Miller Hijacks His Own Meme to Spread a More Important Message
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Wednesday, March 30, 2016
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, March 30, 2016
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