Photos of the tragic-looking Willy's Chocolate Experience in Glasgow have taken the internet by storm...
... and one picture in particular has become a social media favorite.
This snap of a sad-looking Oompa Loompa working at the event, which many online compared to a "meth lab," spread like wildfire across the interwebs, but now attendees of the event are standing up for her, claiming the actor who played the Oompa Loompa was trying to make the otherwise bleak event enjoyable for the children.
In case you missed it, parents paid £35 (nearly $45 US) for tickets to the experience which was slated to offer a “celebration of chocolate in all its delightful forms."
Upon arriving at the venue, however, families were in shock over the sparse decorations and dismal activities... not to mention the complete lack of chocolate.
It was so disappointing, in fact, that the police were called to the venue.
After the photos of the event went viral, though, many attendees spoke out about the photo of the Oompa Loompa, identified as Kirsty Paterson, and praised her for her effort to provide entertainment for the kids.
Paterson herself spoke out about the event and the attention her photo received, which she noted was "quite a lot."
In an interview with Vulture, she explained:
"I find it funny and I can make a humorous joke about it, but the flip side of this is that this is embarrassing for what I do, and I hope this doesn’t tarnish that."
"It’s as if it’s been edited. Obviously, because it’s such an ugly photo, people were commenting on it and saying I look ugly or like a meth head."
"I found the negative comments really hard, but I do see the funny side of it. I know I’m alright looking."
As for her interaction with the children, however, Paterson just wanted everyone to have the best experience possible with the disappointing situation they found themselves in.
"Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an incredibly, shockingly bad set, but we did our lines and everything well."
"We just had a bit of fun with it. I don’t know how else you can put sprinkles on sh*t, but we were trying to be the sprinkles on sh*t."
She also spoke out on TikTok, which has also taken off on X.
The actor who was hired to play Willy Wonka for the event, Paul Connell, took to social media to reveal he, too, was shocked when he arrived at the venue.
“My heart sank looking around … I just felt sad because I was aware of how many kids were going to be coming through."
“We were told to hand the kids a couple of jelly beans and a quarter cup of lemonade at the end.”
He also shared that when he asked how he was supposed to deliver his "15 pages of AI generated gibberish" script, given the props and special effects were missing, Connell was told to "improvise."
So far, none of the actors have been paid for their work.
Attendees of the experience have all been promised full refunds for the purchase of their tickets.
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