Embed from Getty Images

Apparently two weeks ago The Walking Dead had another one of those capsule episodes, and this one involved Tara and a group of new people. The actress who plays Tara, Alanna Masterson, 28, had her first baby in November of last year, right before she filmed that episode. I haven’t been keeping up with Walking Dead recently but it was cute to see the creative ways they hid Masterson’s pregnancy before the midseason break, by putting her in hoodies and filming her from different angles. Anyway people said nasty sh-t on the internet about Masterson I guess, because that’s the world we live in now, where internet trolls get elected to higher office. Her costar, Josh McDermitt (Eugene, the dude with the mullet), went off about it during an interview with The Huffington Post, saying that those people need to be called out, essentially. A brief excerpt is below and you can watch the video on Huffpo’s site:

“She just had a kid. That’s why she hasn’t been in the first six episodes because she was recovering from pregnancy and then people are talking trash about her appearance, and it’s like, screw you,” he said.

McDermitt continued, “I’m going to bully you into stop bullying. That’s what I feel like we need to do. I don’t know how this is gonna work, but we have to stop bullying each other and calling people out for their appearance.”

The actor said he often acts self-deprecating to take the wind out of the bullies’ sails, but he explained, “Not everyone’s gonna do that, and, honestly, I wish I didn’t have to do that.”

“People need to chill the F out with the crap that they’re putting on the internet. It’s very disturbing because we are people, everyone. And I’m not talking about actors. I’m talking about anyone on the internet. I mean, I just read something on CNN the other day where a teenage girl committed suicide who was cyber bullied. This is bullshit. This should never happen,” he said.

McDermitt said social media companies aren’t doing enough and called on them to go after bullies and shut down accounts.

[From Huffington Post]

He’s not wrong and it’s particularly bad on Twitter as we’ve seen because there are hardly any tools for users to delete nasty comments, they can only hide them from their own view given the way the platform works. I think Instagram and Facebook are better as the comments are made on your own page and you have the ultimate control. In Twitter it’s just people talking crap out in the open where the targets have less recourse. It’s sad when it happens to adolescents and teenagers especially because they’re less equipped to deal with that vitriol. That said, there’s a saying “don’t feed the trolls” for a reason. It’s better not to respond to these people directly or they’ll just keep it coming. Calling them out in general like this is a good way to handle it though. I checked McDermitt’s twitter and he’s not feeding the trolls at all and mostly posts links to his recaps of Walking Dead on EW and professional stuff.

I did find this post that Masterson made responding to the trolls in general, which is probably what he’s referring to, although it’s not mentioned in the Huffpo video. This is new to me but you may have heard about it as it’s been up for a while. Good for her. Her daughter’s name is Marlowe and she’s adorable!

Dear Instagram trolls, body shamers, and the men and woman who think it’s ok to comment on my weight: I hope that you don’t have children. And if you do, I hope you teach them about kindness and acceptance. I hope they learn that it isn’t ok to make fun of people or call people names. I hope one day YOU learn what it takes to be a parent. A kind, selfless parent. A working parent. A parent that puts themselves in someone else’s shoes. Maybe you can’t get it through your thick f-king skull, but nursing a baby for a year (and pumping in a van between takes, in the dead of summer in Georgia) is a lot of work, determination, and scheduling. So before you decide to make a comment about my chest being “too large” or how “fat” I’ve become, just know that this little girl got the best start to life. I wouldn’t have changed it for a second. I would’ve gladly continued to eat enough calories to produce milk for her little bones to grow. Also, grow the f-k up. Your mother should be ashamed for raising such a judgmental bully. I’m sure she knows how “courageous” you must be for trolling and hiding behind your Iphone and computers. P.s. I would LOVE to see any man or woman give birth to a baby, nurse the baby, and then work 17 hour days and NAIL their own stunts. P.s.s. Be kind to each other. We need it now more than ever. ?????

A photo posted by Alanna Masterson (@lucytwobows) on Nov 29, 2016 at 2:32pm PST

Embed from Getty Images

photos credit: WENN and Getty