The ‘Meth Lab Oompa Loompa Lady,’ whose real name is Kirsty Paterson, has been through a lot over the past week, but even she wasn’t ready for the latest twist in her story. After being forced to learn an AI-generated script for a disastrous Willy Wonka-themed event in Scotland and facing hordes of hate on X/Twitter, Paterson got a message from someone she never expected: Chrissy Teigen.
“Somebody get the Wonka meth lab girl on Cameo immediately—while it’s still hot,” Teigen said in a recent Instagram story. “I need a Cameo.”
Teigen got her wish, as well as one of Paterson’s first videos on Cameo, a platform where users can buy personalized video and text greetings from all types of celebrities. Paterson currently charges $US25 for video greetings and $US3 for text greetings. Her response time is 24 hours.
How the ‘Meth Lab Oompa Loompa Lady’ Turned Into an Internet Meme
The 30-year-old actress from Glasgow saw her life turned upside down by the failed “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” event in the city last month, which was promoted with fantastical AI-generated images of lollipop forests and jellybean waterfalls.
However, the reality was a far cry from what was promised in the AI images. Instead of the “place where chocolate dreams become reality,” parents and their children encountered a dirty and gutted factory with a couple of plastic candy canes and other props sparsely thrown about the bare concrete floor.
Paterson was one of the actors hired to work at the event and played an Oompa Loompa. In an interview with Vulture, the 30-year-old shared that she saw multiple red flags before the event, such as getting the script the night before the event and seeing a bared-bones set during dress rehearsal. The situation didn’t improve the day of the event, Paterson recalled, and organizers eventually told actors to abandon the script and just let the guests walk through the venue.
At this point, the actress was manning a so-called “Jellybean Room,” where she had to ration a meager three jellybeans per child, and feeling humiliated and angry over what was going on. It was then that someone snapped the now infamous photo of Paterson standing behind what looks like a smoking chemistry set with an expression that seemed to say she was questioning her current life choices.
The photo quickly went viral and got its own entry on KnowYourMeme. While some people poked fun at Paterson, others were needlessly cruel, criticizing her appearance and accusing her of doing drugs. The Twitter comments were hard on the actress, who said she stopped looking at her phone for days because the situation was “too much.”
“The comments are savage—very, very savage and not very nice. I think people need to learn to be a bit more kind and realize that people are just human beings,” Paterson said in a video on TikTok, where she’s already amassed more than 13,000 followers. “I’m just a normal 30-year-old woman from Glasgow who did a job that is the worst acting job I’ve ever done in my life. I love my job. I really do. I do other stuff and the whole thing’s mental to be honest with you.”
Creating a Cameo for the ‘Viral Oompa Loompa’
That doesn’t mean Paterson hasn’t gotten a kick out of some of the comments and memes. The actress said she and the other actors have laughed at some of funny aspects coming out of the Wonka disaster. Paterson said she’s now working on trying to turn the experience into something positive.
Her new fans on social media support her. When Paterson, dressed in her Oompa Loompa costume from the event, announced she was now on Cameo on Monday night, many users were delighted. Some told her to go “make that money.”
As of Tuesday morning, one of the most popular comments was a question on whether Paterson would do a Cameo collab with The Unknown, an evil and creepy-looking character at the event who also went viral. The identity of the actor who played The Unknown is currently, lol, unknown.
“Maybe one day!” Paterson replied.
We’ll be waiting.