In this day and age, you'd think fans would appreciate connecting with celebrities more than ever thanks to opportunities to do so on social media.
But as comedian Lisa Gilroy revealed in a teary video shared on Oct. 18 that has since gone viral, that's clearly not the case — or at least, so it seems.
"To my followers: do better," the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor wrote in the tweet alongside an over two-minute video where she spelled out what happened when she invited five fans to visit her on set.
Note: You'll want to watch the video before continuing with this article, as some of what she has to recount can be both harrowing ... and oddly familiar.
From the beginning, Gilroy is clearly upset, dabbing at her eyes.
"I just wanted to talk about what happened last week," she begins, explaining how she opened up her direct messages (DMs) to her followers on Twitter and picked five fans to bring to the set of a project she's been working on.
"It went so badly, which is embarrassing because I thought ... it should have been a fun time for all of us, but ... I made the big mistake of thinking these people would treat me with respect, the studio with respect, the staff there with respect, and I was so wrong."
She then outlines what happened "almost immediately" after arriving:
- A visitor drank from a "chocolate river" that they'd been told was off-limits.
- Despite a policy of no guests being allowed, someone brought his grandfather, then drank a soda that made them float to the ceiling.
- A girl turned into a blueberry.
- Someone destroyed the squirrel room.
- A guy shrank himself down to "TV size."
Clearly hurt and frustrated, Gilroy continued: "And this is all stuff that, by the way, I have to remedy, and my staff has to take time out of their day to remedy." That meant spending "days juicing that girl" and "stretching" the TV-sized guy to make him the right height again, something that just can't be done.
Gilroy tearfully noted, "He's so tall and skinny and he doesn't look right and he doesn't look normal and I know his family is devastated by that."
Gilroy says she's also discovered that her guests shared her innermost secrets with a "guy in a tunnel."
Fellow comedian Michael McKean retweeted the video, writing, "Brilliantly handled," but not everyone supported McKean's stance, as seen in the comments of Gilroy's original video.
"Wow, way to make yourself the victim in this," one user wrote. "Are we just going to overlook the fact that you took an entire colony of people from their home and exploited their labor at your work? People who live in glass elevators shouldn't throw stones."
Another wrote, "With the staff singing bespoke macabre songs both eulogizing and satirizing the casualties. unsettling and dehumanizing."
Meanwhile, other commenters have Gilroy's guests' welfare in mind; one commenter wrote, "Please give us an update about the girl that turned into a blueberry #PrayforBluberryGirl"
Clearly a disaster all round, one that probably won't be solved with easy fixes like a lifetime supply of chocolate.
And so, folks, don't expect Gilroy to be doing the contest again next year. Clearly, this was the Wonka-est ... er, wonkiest set visit ever!