Natalie Dormer is facing her own round of backlash following a controversial video that YouTuber Logan Paul uploaded.
The former Game of Thrones actress starred in the 2016 film The Forest, set in the very real Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. Dubbed the “suicide forest,” many people called the movie insensitive, and that commentary has only been refueled by Logan Paul’s most recent video.
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“Logan Paul is not the first person to exploit the suicide forest,” one Twitter user wrote.
Logan Paul is not the first person to exploit the suicide forest. This 2016 film, starring Natalie Dormer, uses Aokigahara for some cheap scares and supernatural nonsense. pic.twitter.com/NLcBny4a7J
— Reactivated (@SushiRollPhan) January 2, 2018
“Logan Paul is just the latest celeb to make light of the tragic deaths at Aokigahara,” wrote another.
Logan Paul is just the latest celeb to make light of the tragic deaths at Aokigahara. Hollywood didn’t shower itself in glory with the release of The Forest, with Natalie Dormer scampering around a Serbian stand-in for Aokigahara pursued by CGI ghosts.
— Joe (@joe_planet) January 2, 2018
Another stated that Dormer’s film “has a part to play in this Logan Paul stuff. Turning what is a terribly sad place where desperate people end their lives into a spooky movie location for entertainment.”
That Natalie Dormer supernatural horror film has a part to play in this Logan Paul stuff. Turning what is a terribly sad place where desperate people end their lives into a spooky movie location for entertainment. Such a lack of empathy and self-awareness.
— Flash (@Akahige86) January 2, 2018
The movie follows the story of Sara, who ventures into the Aokigahara forest to find her twin sister. Despite being warned to “stay on the path,” she ventures off and is haunted by the tormented souls who have taken their lives within the forest.
Backlash of the movie follows in the wake of a video that 22-year-old Logan Paul uploaded to his YouTube Channel, which has 15 million subscribers. The vlog, filmed in Aokigahara, showed what appeared to be the dead body of a man hanging from a tree.
The video has since been taken down and Paul has issued an apology, stating that “I’ve never faced criticism like this before, because I’ve never made a mistake like this before.”