Actor Who Voiced Barney Recalls Obtaining Loss of life Threats Amid Backlash

Actor Who Voiced Barney Recalls Obtaining Loss of life Threats Amid Backlash


Get ready by yourself for a new new standpoint on Barney’s legendary ask for: “Would not you say you adore me as well?”

Bob West, the actor who originated the iconic voice of the beloved children’s character and gave life to the purple dinosaur from 1988 to 2000, is revealing what it was really like to do the job on “Barney & Pals.”

In Peacock’s new documentary, “I Love You, You Dislike Me,” West opens up about equally the superior and poor of being portion of the Barney relatives. Although the established was a joyful put to work for the cast and crew, West was one member of the staff who ultimately located himself on the obtaining stop of some hate.

“I did get some email messages from some middle schoolers, which are actually sad,” West recounted throughout an exceptional job interview with E! Information of the practice regarded as Barney bashing. “I did get dying threats from children in center faculty, but I know what that was: Young children developing up and attempting to throw off childhood. Typically, there was a whole lot a lot more love than there was loathe.”

West spelled out that in the early times of the Internet his personal email someway got leaked to the public, which led to equally good and detrimental responses.

“I got some seriously pretty notes from little ones and I also acquired these demise threats,” West continued. “I wrote back again and most of them were being like, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t know there was a genuine human getting on the other close.’ Some of the children were of course hurting or experienced anything likely on in their lives. I tried out my best to get ahold of their instructors or their computer lab individual and see if we could get them some help.”

Nevertheless, West clarified “there was a lot less” detest mail than there have been letters from appreciative followers.

Bob West, Barney Documentary

“I Appreciate You, You Despise Me” shines a mild on a certain subgroup of Barney haters who formed communities and fueled backlash against “Barney & Mates.”

One particular of those anti-Barney groups was The Jihad to Damage Barney, an online community in which users designed lover fiction with the aim of defeating fictionalized Barney villains. West explained he actually had an interaction with the group on line, but it was actually fairly good.

“It was just this wonderfully formulated, actually advanced very little culture that they had,” he said of the Jihad. “They all had roles and they experienced ranks and it was this war against Barney. It was a massive joke… I basically went into the team a few of situations to say howdy and they were being just so pleasant to me. It was all just for entertaining.” 

Addressing Barney critics, West shared, “I understand where by it will come from but I will not really encourage it. I understand that cynicism is uncomplicated to appear across now. I indicate, I have to say that I’m a very little extra cynical than I was when I was younger.”

He ongoing, “There is certainly a true will need for comprehension and not amplifying becoming skeptical about something to the stage in which it becomes dislike or violent.”

To discover more about the dim facet of Barney, “I Love You, You Detest Me,” premieres Wednesday, Oct. 12, on Peacock.

E!, this tv station and Peacock are element of the NBCUniversal loved ones.



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