A make-up guru has come under fire for sharing a Pennywise-themed tutorial after calling the movie It ‘awful’ and making it clear he didn’t enjoy the Stephen King adaptation.
YouTube star James Charles, 18, shared the clip with his 1.8 million subscribers on Sunday. He said in the video he expected to get flak for the clip, announcing in the beginning: ‘I know everybody’s going to say this is the most hypocritical, ironic video of 2017 so far and you’re probably right.’
Still, James, who has also acted as the face of Covergirl, said on Twitter he was shocked by the amount of criticism he has received—and even two of the hit movie’s cast members chimed in as the controversy mounted.
Slammed: Make-up guru James Charles (pictured) has come under fire for sharing a Pennywise-themed tutorial after calling the movie It ‘awful’
Scary: The YouTube star shared the clip with his 1.8 million subscribers on Sunday, recreating the look sported by the terrifying clown in the 2017 Stephen King adaptation (pictured)
Opinions: Twitter users have been criticizing James for putting together the tutorial even though he publicly criticized the movie
Speaking out: James, who has also acted as the face of Covergirl, said on Twitter he was shocked by the amount of criticism he has received
James went to see the movie last month and said in a now-defunct tweet he found it ‘awful’.
He later clarified in a video and in written messages that he didn’t think the whole production was bad, but that he went in expecting to be more scared than he was, and thus left the theater disappointed.
James called the new adaptation ‘awful as in cheesy and not scary’ and also explained on Twitter: ‘I didn’t like IT because it seemed as though it was branded to be a horror movie. I was not scared. I did not enjoy. Get over it.’
The make-up maven also said he had decided to do the Pennywise-inspired tutorial because plenty of other people had enjoyed the movie and wanted to learn how to mimic the clown’s terrifying appearance.
Finn Wolfhard, 14, who plays Richie Tozier in the 2017 adaptation, chimed in at the time, asking the YouTube guru: ‘Why are you on your phone in the movie theater? Rule 1.’
However, James’ criticism of the movie resurfaced after he posted his Pennywise transformation on his YouTube channel this weekend.
Savvy: ‘I know everybody’s going to say this is the most hypocritical, ironic video of 2017 so far and you’re probably right,’ James said in acknowledgement at the beginning of his video
Thoughts: James later clarified in a video and in written messages that he didn’t think the whole production was bad, but that he went in expecting to be more scared than he was
Reasons: The make-up maven said he had decided to do the Pennywise-inspired tutorial because plenty of people wanted to learn how to mimic the clown’s terrifying appearance
Asking: Finn Wolfhard, 14, who plays Richie Tozier in It, chimed in when James first criticized the movie, asking the YouTube guru: ‘Why are you on your phone in the movie theater? Rule 1’
Conversation: Wyatt Ghouleff, the 14-year-old cast member who plays Stan Uris, also made a thinly-veiled reference to James, but ended up apologizing kindly
Sweet: The young actor even added another message asking his followers to back off, telling them: ‘Guys, @jamescharles is just doing his job. His fans asked for the tutorial so he gave it’
Cast: Finn (second from left) and Wyatt (right) are part of the cast of talented young actors featured in the newest adaptation of Stephen King’s novel
The video shows viewers how they can turn themselves into the terrifying, child-eating dancing clown that terrorizes the town of Derry with a few aptly applied cosmetic products.
James’ decision to do a Pennywise tutorial even though he had publicly slammed the movie shocked several viewers, who accused him of exploiting the incredibly popular movie for views.
‘How’s James Charles gonna dress up like pennywise after he disrespected the movie five weeks ago?’ one person tweeted.
Another person wrote: ‘So you’re telling me James Charles is so thirsty for views he did a Pennywise make-up tutorial even though he said the movie was terrible??’
Wyatt Ghouleff, the 14-year-old cast member who plays Stan Uris, chimed in too. While he didn’t mention James by name, he tweeted on Monday: ‘When you decide to exploit a movie that you hate for money & attention cause why not.’
James promptly replied, telling him he didn’t intend to apologize for doing a tutorial his viewers had asked for, to which Wyatt said: ‘I get that and it’s totally fine. Just making a joke here on my end.’
However, James told the young actor the joke was ‘uncalled for’ and would only result in him getting dragged further.
At that point, Wyatt sweetly apologized, telling the make-up guru: ‘Oop sorry bout that lol. I can’t control people, but I’ll try to make sure that they aren’t jerks to you again. Very sorry.’
Wyatt even added another message asking his followers to back off, telling them: ‘Guys, @jamescharles is just doing his job. His fans asked for the tutorial so he gave it. We’re human, we make mistakes. Don’t be a jerk.’
James, whose videos routinely surpass one million views, has already raked in more than 788,000 views on his latest, Pennywise-themed clip.