Parents, children, and now disgruntled actors are in an uproar over a catastrophic Willy Wonka-themed event in Scotland that went viral over the weekend. The “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” ended with police sirenswhen families enticed by fantastical AI-generated images arrived to find a filthy, barely decorated warehouse. Now, actors who joined in on the fiasco are speaking out. The deeper you go into this world of imagination, the worse it gets.
Paul Connell, who said he was one of several actors hired to play Willy Wonka, posted on TikTok that he was handed a 15-page monologue of “AI-generated gibberish” and told to memorize the script in one day. Among the more unsettling lines was an aside about an evil, rival chocolate maker, which apparently terrified children.
“There is a man who lives here. His name is not known, so we call him the Unknown. The Unknown is an evil chocolate maker who lives in the wall,” Connell said, reciting his lines. In a video shared by an attendee, “the Unknown” emerges from behind a mirror, prompt terrified reactions from children.
New details on the Willy Wonka Experience disaster
• Script was '15 pages of AI-generated gibberish'
• Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'
• Event had no chocolate — kids were given a single jelly bean & a cup of lemonade pic.twitter.com/kxs1RcKVC8
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) February 28, 2024
“What is an evil chocolate maker, for a start?” Connell said. “Does he make evil chocolate, or is he an evil man who makes chocolate? And what do you mean he lives in the walls?”
Actress Kirsty Paterson, who’s been dubbed the “Meth Lab Oompa Loompa Lady” for a photo of her behind a smoking chemistry set, told the Daily Mail she still hasn’t been paid for her work.
The Oompa Loompa from the knock off Wonka land experience looks like she’s running a literal meth lab and is seriously questioning the life choices up until this point. If you scripted this, I would say it was too on the nose pic.twitter.com/WwkGO8Hjck
— Disappointed Optimist (@disappoptimism) February 27, 2024
“I was angry at the time because I felt like this is embarrassing for me, and I felt bad for the people coming in as well,” Paterson said. “I actually ended up shouting at [event organizer Billy Coull]. I just said to him he’s a joke and this is like embarrassing, and how can we basically live with himself, doing this to people.”
Coull, who deleted his LinkedIn account following Saturday’s debacle, reportedly promised a full refund to customers.
Billy Coull, organiser of Willy’s Chocolate Experience, fancies himself as some sort of don’t-work-hard-work-smart playboy who also sells AI-written ‘books’ on Amazon
get a job! pic.twitter.com/s0YEFq1Vsv
— better (@BetterThanToday) February 28, 2024
“I paid for Willy Wonka and got Billy Bonkers,” one customer wrote on social media. “Having now seen the posts on this page and stories about the event organiser, it’s clear the guy is a sandwich short of a picnic and has some sort of pathological disorder.”
House of Illuminati did not respond to a request for comment.
Employees and ticket holders formed a Facebook group to share complaints called “House of Illuminati scam,” after the oddly named company that organized the event.
“Everything looked good on paper when advertised however it was a complete last-minute shitshow,” wrote Michael Archibald, who said he was one of the show’s hired actors. “With contracts signed in erasable ink and no updates on what’s happening, I doubt any of us will receive a penny.”
Though the event used Willy Wonka’s name, likeness, and AI-generated art clearly based on the Warner Bros. movie, House of Illuminati wrote on the event’s website that “Any resemblance to any character, fictitious or living, is purely coincidental. This experience is in no way related to the Wonka franchise, which is owned by the Warner Bros. company.”
“I feel for anyone who bought tickets to the event. People who were expecting a magical chocolate experience and got me in a top hat in a dirty warehouse in Glasgow,” Connell said.
