Hated Heroine: Katie Leung

Scottish actress Katie Leung, who plays Harry Potter's Goblet of Fire love interest Cho Chang, became the subject of hate sites when she got the part. In a widely reported item in the UK October issue of Good Housekeeping, she said

"Looking different from most of the people at school never caused me any problems. Still, I never expected the hate sites that popped up on the internet after I got the part in the film. I couldn’t understand why people were so angry - a lot of the messages were from jealous girls who didn’t like the fact that I play Harry’s love interest in the film and some of them did bring my ethnicity into it."

The September 11, 2005 Sunday Mail provides more detail:

Comments printed on the "Hate Katie" sites include: "I hate her because she is stupid, dumb, an idiot and gets to play Cho Chang.

"And, oh... she gets to kiss Daniel Radcliffe."

Other comments attack her looks as 'ugly' and 'bizarrely too Eastern', poke fun at her Scottish background and mock her soft Scottish accent.

But there have been others even more coarse and explicitly racist.

However, the story goes back to an article, "Harry Potter and the Poisoned Chalice", that appeared in the Mail on Sunday on April 10, 2005. This being a Harry Potter story, it was bound to be possible to find the complete article somewhere, and somewhere tuned out to be a page at Veritaserum. Here's part:

Despite being deliberately kept under wraps by Warner - without public appearances, interviews, or official pictures - the slender and shy student has become a hate figure for obsessive Potter fans.

Scores of fake websites have sprung up, some apparently giving her thoughts and feelings in diary form. ...

Most disturbing are several 'hate Katie' sites where youngsters are encouraged to explain in graphic detail why they loathe the dark-haired beauty. One site has e-mails with statements such as: 'I hate Katie Leung till the end of time.'
...
There are racist comments too crude to print, many using the coarsest language. Some come from angry fans of established Korean and Chinese actresses who failed to get an audition. This is because Potter creator J.K. Rowling insisted that the girl whose caress transforms the bespectacled Harry from boy to love-struck adolescent has to be a complete unknown.

The natural reaction is sympathy for the actress, combined with disgust at what is being said, but sometimes there is something else that will be familiar to many who have followed internet discussions of Big Brother housemates: a curious admixture of "What did she expect?". For example, a forum thread, "Katie Leung - the price of fame", at SnitchSneeker.com, where one post by DramaticJourno includes:

The recent Katie issue is the most perfect example of fame's cost. The truth is, quite a lot of young people who dream of becoming a successful actor or actress want the job in order to become 'famous'.
...
It's all part of the celebrity obsession. ... Teenagers aspire to be the stars of tomorrow, ... youngsters ... assume that they can rise to fame overnight.

However, Katie Leung's rise to fame practically did appear overnight. The once-unknown student is now the envy of thousands of girls across the globe, who have become so bitter that they are taking to internet abuse to let out their anger. It's a huge step for Katie, and even though I personally pity her, my main thought is, 'Well what did she expect?'

Having a sought-after part in a huge movie is bound to spark fury somewhere along the line. hoever you are, not everyone is going to like you. Hatelistings and nasty webpages are upsetting, but it really is all part of being a rising star, and should really be expected. Everyone gets bad press; it's a fact of being famous. ...

Yet being just seventeen, it is understandable why such negativity could be worrying Katie.

But alas...she wanted to be Cho, and should have realised in the first place that bad aspects were obviously going to be experienced as well as good. Though it is simply astonishing what things can be said about a girl nobody knows; who is not due to make her screen debut until later this year.

On the whole, the article is sympathetic, and it makes some well-observed points. However, on this one issue, the reasoning takes a slightly odd turn. What's being said about her is "simply astonishing", but ... she should have expected it.

One thing missing from all of the articles I've seen so far is any sense that the internet has brought out something new. Yet whatever nasty things rising stars had to face in the past, webpages containing comments "too crude to print" were not among them. Yes, a few people might write hate-filled letters, but they couldn't so easily find, and be encouraged by, others with similar opinions.