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The thing about overnight stardom is that it leaves you with very little time to prepare. There\u2019s no extended period to emotionally ready yourself for being recognized everywhere and gaining millions of followers in a matter of weeks. And there\u2019s barely a moment to do a thorough sweep of your digital footprint to wipe any potentially embarrassing middle school vlogs or long-forgotten Instagram posts. For Hudson Williams, star of the hit series (and my current hyperfixation) Heated Rivalry, a now-deleted Letterboxd account\u2014which was public and available for investigative new stans to find\u2014recently captured the internet\u2019s attention, and has also managed to stir up a bit of controversy.<\/p>\n
It was earlier this week that fans uncovered the page where the 24-year-old actor logged films like Lolita, Dune, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. And, like many a Letterboxd user, did not hold back his honest thoughts in his reviews. To summarize: Hudson loved Challengers (“very inspiring as far as artistic swings go”), did not love Nope (“It’s not subtle. It’s slow, it’s unrewarding,”), and found Lolita to be proof that \u201cPerverted movies are so good…just a terrifying mediation.\u201d Hudson is far from the first person to write a shady review on the platform, but due to his newfound Hollywood it-boy status, word of this page traveled fast. Some online expressed a lot of concern that he dared to post candid movie reviews on a movie-reviewing app; mostly because, as a now in-demand actor, his opinions carry significantly more weight, and could theoretically offend a future collaborator.<\/p>\n
But like Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s widely shared high school \u201cRoman\u2019s Revenge\u201d performance<\/a> before it, Hudson\u2019s current Letterboxd drama is a reminder that young Gen Z talents who grew up on the internet are burdened with far more digital ground to scrub than their predecessors. Long gone are the days when you could lock up your Facebook and consider your online past safe from discovery. Digital natives have Pinterest boards to hide, tweets and TikToks to delete, maybe even long-abandoned Tumblrs once used to share now-slightly embarrassing inspirational quotes or even worse, political takes they no longer align with. <\/p>\n While one half of the conversation about Hudson\u2019s Letterboxd-gate is fixated on making sweeping moral judgments based on his not-too-serious movie reactions, the other half is grappling with the fact that they\u2019d likely be in a similar position if their own old posts were suddenly thrust into the spotlight. We\u2019ve arrived at a time where this \u201cold pages get exposed\u201d chapter has become routine for almost every young up-and-coming star. Unless they grew up Amish or with strict social media limitations, most young luminaries have humbling, unpolished content floating around the internet\u2019s ether that their newly-hired PR representatives might miss\u2014but young stans with an ample amount of time on their hands will surely track down. Even Hudson\u2019s Heated Rivalry co-star Connor Storrie had his (really adorable) tween-aged YouTube channel dug up just weeks ago. <\/p>\n As we know, not all digital footprints are created equally, and usually celebrities’ old posts get attention because they’re offensive enough to warrant notes app apology statements (one that emphasizes how much the celeb in question has \u201cgrown\u201d since those things were said, and maybe how they \u201cdidn’t understand the history of whatever choice slur was used at the time.)<\/p>\n But when these resurfaced social media profiles aren\u2019t riddled with bigotry, they aren’t as worth picking apart for clues of indecency. Perhaps it\u2019s better not to scandalize these moments and overanalyze every last detail, and embrace the fact that they\u2019re relatable, humbling, and especially in Hudson\u2019s case, quite amusing. (And indicative of great taste! The man had La Chimera in his top 4.)<\/p>\n The instinct to scan celebrities’ old profiles for signs of bad behavior is valid. Everyone is free to spend their time, money, and attention how they so choose, and nobody is obligated to support a celebrity whose values don\u2019t align with their own.<\/p>\n But because fans are so programmed to dig for potential horrors, they miss out on this content’s fun. While some people are attempting to draw conclusions about Hudson\u2019s political or moral standing based on his movie reviews, everyone else gets to enjoy the relatability of the situation and relish the reminder that even a newly minted Hollywood it boy once used Letterboxd exactly the way it was intended.<\/p>\n In early 2024, on the Las Culturistas podcast, Tina Fey offered some well-intentioned advice to host Bowen Yang and other rising stars about sharing honest opinions online. \u201cI regret to inform you that you are too famous now, sir,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have a problem with Saltburn? Quiet luxury. Keep it to yourself. Authenticity is dangerous and expensive.\u201d The clip has since been widely recirculated this week thanks to how relevant it is to Hudson\u2019s current drama.<\/p>\n But dangerous, expensive pre-fame authenticity is also refreshing in a landscape dominated by overly sanitized public personas. There\u2019s something thrilling about hearing 12-year-old Connor Storrie lament the lyrics of Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cFirework\u201d <\/a>or reading Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s old tweet about how Nicki Minaj \u201cwasn\u2019t a great student.\u201d<\/a> You’ll find authentic vulnerability in Sabrina Carpenter’s old comedy skits or Ayo Edebiri’s acoustic song covers<\/a>. These moments are familiar to anyone who grew up sharing every little thought and artistic inkling they had online. Maybe these old posts are just the modern iteration of the \u201cStars, They\u2019re Just Like Us!\u201d tabloid pages that keep pop culture alive.
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