Actress Ele Keats has claimed she was sent a ‘book of horrible reviews’ by after starring in Newsies, which was one of their biggest box-office flops.
Keats, who was just 20 at the time the film came out in 1992, alleged that she was sent a folder of ‘painfully mean’ reviews including ones aimed at her performance as Sarah Jones specifically.
She told Insider: ‘I got mailed this, like, phone book of horrible reviews, including some personal-attack type of reviews.
‘I think that someone in the press department thought maybe I would enjoy reading them. I don’t know why.’
Keats revealed she found it ‘really hard’ reading all the negative comments, especially as she was working on Disney-Paramount movie Alive when she received them.
Co-star Arvie Lowe Junior, who played Boots, a newspaper hawker in the musical historical comedy-drama, claims he too received reviews through the post from Disney almost every week.
He claims they included reviews saying the Kenny Ortega-directed movie was ‘terrible’ and that the acting was ‘sub-par’.
The film, which had a budget of $15million (£11.5million) had made just $1.2million (£940,000) at the box office upon release.
Although it was deemed a flop, the film has since become a cult classic, which Keats believes is because it was simply ahead of its time.
She believes it would have been ‘wildly successful’ of it was released around a decade later than it was.
Keats explained: ‘It was just before its time. If it could have come out even eight years later, it would be wildly successful — 10 or 12 years later, it would’ve been a smash hit.’
Metro.co.uk has reached out to reps for Disney for comment.
