A TikTok prankster is receiving criticism for teasing Owen Teague and Freya Allan, the leads of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, at the film’s red carpet premiere.
Through his unconventional prank videos, TikToker Easton Simpson has amassed a following of more than 300,000. In several of his videos, he can be seen interviewing individuals while intentionally speaking unclearly.
On May 2, Simpson was present at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles for the premiere of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. He had the chance to speak with the movie’s actors, who were unaware that a prankster had been invited to the event.
On May 7, Simpson shared a few videos in which he can be seen speaking with Teague and Allan. He displayed a professional demeanor and seemed to genuinely ask them relevant questions before trailing off into mumbling.
The TikToker started to discuss the unique experience of acting in the movie where the actors were not portraying humans. However, before they could finish their thought, they began speaking in gibberish, leaving Teague confused.
@es.imps Mumbling to the cast of #KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes 😂 @20th Century Studios movie out May 10th #mumble #hollywood #redcarpet
Despite repeatedly asking Simpson to clarify the question, the actor would consistently receive the same nonsensical response. This eventually caused him to lose his composure and mimic monkey noises, similar to his character in the movie.
Similarly, during the interview with Freya Allan, the TikToker encountered the same situation where the actress, like her co-star, requested multiple repetitions of the question before realizing that the entire incident was merely a prank.
“Such an evil act!”she exclaimed. “I cannot forgive you for this. I am already filled with enough anxiety.”
Despite receiving praise from a majority of Simpson’s followers, there were some who did not show support for the interviews and the actors’ responses.
@es.imps Mumbling to Freya Allan before the #KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes movie premiere 😂😭 @20th Century Studios #mumble #hollywood #redcarpet
One person expressed frustration, stating that there are individuals who would be thrilled to interview someone like him, but instead, he was chosen for the job and turned it into a joke by not taking it seriously.
“Instead of asking genuine questions about their work, someone else suggested pranking the talent (who were clearly frustrated with the whole bit).”
Another person commented, “If I were being interviewed, I would be extremely stressed. My auditory processing is not the best, so I always put in extra effort to understand. Having someone deliberately make it difficult would be my worst nightmare.”
Even as Simpson went from interviewing strangers to attending red carpet premieres, his supporters still recognized and praised his viral TikTok content.
“One of his fans praised how he went from mumbling to strangers to doing it to celebrities, highlighting it as an incredible accomplishment.”
Leave a Reply