'Last of Us 2' voice actor Laura Bailey gets death threats, fans ask gamers to 'separate fiction from reality'
Spoilers for 'The Last of Us Part 2'
Laura Bailey the voice actress that plays the character, Abby, in the Playstation exclusive game 'The Last of Us Part II' has taken to Twitter to share some disturbing messages she has received online, most of which seem to be death threats. The online abuse she has received apparently revolves around her fictional character Abby being responsible for the death of a "beloved character" in the video game, as has been reported on many publications this past hour. The actress took to the social media channel to share the hatred she had been receiving on the evening of Friday, July 3, 2020. Fans didn't waste time calling out people that seem to lack the ability to distinguish reality from fiction, as they held the actress "responsible for her actions" in a completely made-up world of a video game.
"Who the HELL is f****** with Laura Bailey for the actions of a fictional character she played? If you're unable to distinguish fiction from reality THAT bad, shouldn't you be too terrified of her apparent murder skills to send her death threats? Grow up and engage with reality -R," tweeted a fan with another one adding, "You can be mad over joels death and you can hate abby, but what you cannot do is send laura bailey death threats for literally ACTING and doing her job like she was paid to, she didn’t write the script, and even if she did it would not warrant her getting death threats bc of it"
"Man. I try to only post positive stuff on here... but sometimes this just gets a little overwhelming. I blacked out some of the words cuz, ya know, spoilers. Side note. Thank you to all the people sending me positive messages to balance it out. It means more than I can say," tweeted the actress with screenshots of the death threats she had received. The messages were extremely hateful and not only threatened Bailey but her family as well and some stated that they wished her parents were killed by cancer and others threatened to attack her child.
"I dont give a s**t about your TLOU2 opinion if you are such a trash human being that you threaten LAURA BAILEY, the SWEETEST BEAN then you need to work in your life, you are a shame to the human race" wrote another user. The actress had blacked out some parts of the messages in order to avoid spoilers for fans who actually remember that this was a video game and not real life. While fans were quick to defend the actress, many called out the "absolute stupidity" of the people that we're sending the threatening messages to the actress.
"Hey nerds: Laura Bailey is not Abby. Kelly Marie Tran is not Rose Tico. Justin Prentice is absolutely f****** nothing like Bryce Walker. Actors. Are. Not. Their. Characters. Learn how to separate fiction from reality and stop harassing actors you f****** idiots," wrote one user with another adding, "Laura Bailey is an actress. Based on your opinions of the character, a damn good one. But first and foremost, she is a person. A person with real feelings. She does not deserve your abuse for doing her job. You are not entitled to abuse her because you have access to her."
"Laura Bailey appreciation post: I am consistently inspired and annihilated by Laura's consummate talent and professionalism. The mark of a great artist is their ability to elicit change and affect others through their work; Bailey is one of the greatest in her field," wrote a fan.
While many tweets were geared toward Laura's abusers, some took to the social media channel to send support to the actress. "Another person wrote a message of support to the actress, saying, “In this house we respect, love, and support Laura Bailey," wrote one user. "This is absolutely absurd. People have to distinguish the character from the actor. I can't voice my support enough for Laura Bailey and her career and I hope she only flourishes from this entire affair," wrote another. Other positive messages included telling the actress that she's part of an ongoing riot of many who can't distinguish between reality and fiction and they told Bailey that she is loved in many gamer communities, and these "people have lost their goddamn minds." Bailey is definitely appreciative of the love as the voice actress tweeted, "Damn. The amount of encouraging responses to this... I’ve always believed that good people far outweigh the bad. Thanks for reminding me of that today."