Joey King is paying no mind to the haters.
“There’s been just, like, a feeling that comes with a public perception and how that makes you feel,” King, 27, said during the Monday, September 21, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast while discussing criticism she has received throughout her career.
“If it should make you feel anything ever, especially how accessible it is to see what everyone says about you online,” she continued. “But now I’m just like, ‘Wait a minute, good or bad, whether they’re saying really nice things, really mean things, really untrue things about my beliefs, whatever they’re saying, my real life is great.’ It doesn’t permeate that at all.”
The Act alum added, “I still get hired to do roles I love. I still have a really nice life at home. Then I guess it really doesn’t permeate my space. It’s true, it doesn’t. So what does it matter?”
King recently faced backlash for her casting in Practical Magic 2 as Kylie Owens, the role originated by Evan Rachel Wood in the 1998 cult classic film. Additionally, the role of Antonia Owens, originally played by Alexandra Artrip, went to Maisie Williams in the sequel.
“In the first movie, Evan Rachel Wood played Kylie, who’s the character that I’m playing,” King said on Monday. “And I think initially it was, like, very hard for audiences to kind of imagine that she and the original young woman who played Antonia weren’t part of it.”
Explaining the decision to recast the characters, King pointed out that the sequel follows “a very specific kind of age story line of where the girls are” and was adapted from the second book in Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series, called Book of Magic.
“In the books, the girls in the Book of Magic, they’re of a certain age. They’re just out of college,” she shared.
King recalled having a pleasant chat with Wood, 38, ahead of Practical Magic 2’s premiere.
“Luckily, she wished me well,” the Kissing Booth star noted. “She said in an interview recently, I saw where she was like, ‘I wish Joey the best.’ And so I reached out to her, and it was so sweet … because everyone was saying things online. And then I was like, ‘Well, what if we just chatted?’ And so that was really nice because it’s just so noisy when people make their mind up about how to behave, and they feel something about someone or a casting choice.”
Days before the sequel’s September 11 premiere, Wood threw shade at the cast via her Instagram Stories — but she praised King.
“I really appreciated Joey King reaching out to me because no one who worked on the original film did. She’s a sweetheart,” Wood, who previously claimed that she was “not asked to come back” for the second movie, wrote earlier this month.
In August, King directly addressed a fan who claimed via TikTok that her casting “ruined” Practical Magic 2.
“Awww no!! I do hope you like the movie, it was a true honor to be in it as a massive fan of the original myself,” she wrote back to the critic. “I know it’s hard sometimes when legacy sequels are made and casting is different than what certain people envisioned, but I only ask that you open your mind a little and see how much fun I had making it.”
