On a cold March evening, after the sun had gone down and most school-aged children were grudgingly starting their lessons, Felicia Dawkins, 16, called excitedly from Scotland to say that her life had changed — to better.
She introduced herself with the kind of bubbly energy and giddiness that only a teenager can exude. It’s the same energy that drew millions of viewers to her TikTok account, where she revealed herself as a key participant in a Willy Wonka-themed event gone so badly that her memes briefly took over much of the internet and international news coverage. for days.
That event, in Glasgow at the end of February, failed to deliver the dazzling experience it promised. The fallout—in true Internet fashion—was swift and brutal. Organizers quickly shut down the event and promised full refunds to disgruntled families.
The internet then connected with one of the most unexplained characters in the event, known only as “The Unknown”, played by Felicia. Footage of her performance as an evil chocolatier living within the walls of the factory, which included emerging from behind a mirror to the screams of children, was widely circulated online, kicking off the teenager’s 15 minutes of fame.
She’s capitalizing now, taking her terrifying talents south for a guest appearance at the London Dungeon, a theatrical thrill ride in the shadow of the city’s London Eye, this weekend. The company contacted Felicia shortly after her viral moment to invite her to train with the performance team and perform in the attraction. “We could see that he has a real passion and talent for theater and interactions with guests,” Richard Quincey, head of performance at London Dungeon and South Bank Attractions, said in a statement.
Felicia’s mother, Janet Dawkins, said she had mixed feelings about the Wonka event failing so miserably and so publicly. “It all led to her getting all these, all these opportunities,” Ms Dawkins said. “Well, I can’t really say I’m angry about anything that went down, to be honest.”
Ms Dawkins said she was “very, very proud” of Felicia and that her family had been closely involved in helping the young actress find her feet amid all the attention.
Felicia spoke to The Times about her brief stint at Willy’s Chocolate Experience, her love of all things scary and her acting aspirations. The following is an edited and condensed version of that conversation.
What was your life like before Willy’s Chocolate Experience?
I just went to school normally. I was preparing for highers in school, which are basically just exams. And my favorite subject at school — I really like drama, which is very cliche. I like PE too. I’m quite physical. I am also Boy Scouts in my spare time.
What kind of things do you do in Boy Scouts? I want to see if it is similar or different to the Boy Scouts in the United States.
Some weeks we’ll just do games, some weeks we’ll learn about signals and then we go to camps quite often which is really fun. I was actually selected to go to Norway this year by Scouts, so I took the Willy Wonka Experience job to pay for it.
How did you get the opportunity to be a part of the Willy Wonka experience?
Basically, just someone from the House of Illuminati [the organizer of the Wonka event] was talking to a family friend about this massive Wonka experience. And then my name came up in the conversation that I would be a good Wonka because I like acting in real life. And they’ve seen me before, because I go to drama school here too.
Did you get paid for the Wonka experience?
I got paid, yes. They didn’t pay me the full amount, but they did pay me £250 [about $315].
And how much did they promise you?
£500 [about $630].
Bring us back to the day of the event. What was going through your mind and did you think the event was going well or did you think it was disastrous?
When I first got there and saw the set, I thought, “Oh, this is going to be a disaster.” But when people started coming in – like the first, I’d say, 45 minutes went relatively well – like, people seemed to enjoy it. But after that, he just lost the whole organization, and then it just went completely downhill from there. And I just thought, “Oh my God!”
As an actor, when you’re in that situation and you’re given a script that you have to learn immediately, what kind of emotions come up?
I was so nervous about it because I had performed before. I’m pretty good at learning lines. But seeing this, I thought, there’s no way I’m going to learn this overnight. And since the script was created with AI, most of it didn’t even make sense. So it was harder for me to learn, so I just had to improvise.
Why did you decide that? reveal yourself on TikTok after closing the experience?
No one knew, really, that I was the Unknown. I told a few of my close friends, but when people on TikTok started coming forward and saying they were the Unknowns, I was like, “No, you’re not, because I’m the Unknown.” And more and more people started doing it, and they were getting a lot of likes, and a lot of influence, and a lot of money from it. Well, I just had to come out and show that I was the 16-year-old girl who did this.
Some of your TikTok videos have received millions of views. How do you handle your newfound fame?
It’s completely wild, but I have to say my family – they’ve been so supportive during this. They helped me through it all. They manage my TikTok, like, look for new opportunities for me. I have to say they are like my family, they help me through it all.
Do you feel overwhelmed by it or do you enjoy the limelight?
It’s definitely overwhelmed me, but I still love it because I put a smile on people’s faces. Like, I make people laugh. This makes me really happy.
What were some of the highlights?
They have sent me tons of fan art and lots of merchandise. That has to be like the number one thing – that people take time out of their day to make things for me and send them to me.
I’ve read that you want to be a full-time actor. Tell me more about this goal and what would be your dream job?
After I did ‘Elf’ the musical [a production she starred in a few years ago and played the lead character, Buddy], I said to my mom, “I really want to take it further.” And he took me to acting school. This helped me get into a lot more, like productions and stuff. So I think I’m just trying to get more opportunities. This would be the best for me because it’s a lot of fun.
You will be heading to London to be a guest performer at the London Dungeon on April 7th. If you can tell me, do you know what your role will be?
Yes! I am so, so excited. I think I’ll be the Stranger at the event. I’m not sure, though, but I think that’s who I am.
How do you prepare for it?
Watching a lot of horror movies.
Which ones are you watching?
“The grudge.”
Are you easily scared? I guess you can’t be if you like horror, right?
I was scared when I was little. But now that I love it, I’m not afraid anymore.
Would it be fair to say that you enjoy haunting and scaring people?
I like to give people very strong emotions. Like at school and last year we had, like, this Halloween event and you were acting and my character was like a rambunctious doctor and he was scaring all the little S1s and S2s, who are like 12 and 13 year olds. And that was really a lot of fun.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hopefully one day on stage.