Willy’s Chocolate Experience: The Unknown teenager remembers ‘crazy’ Wonka event
Felicia Dawkins captivated the internet as Willy Wonka’s masked rival.
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Your support makes all the difference.The teenage actress who became a viral star as the mysterious masked figure scaring children at a botched Willy Wonka event has looked back on her “crazy” year.
Felicia Dawkins, 17, captivated the internet as The Unknown, one of many alternative characters – including Oompa Loompas renamed Wonkidoodles – from February’s disastrous Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow.
The unlicensed nod to Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory went viral and made international news, featuring in outlets including CNN and the New York Times, after what was advertised as an immersive experience proved to be a sparsely-decorated flop.
Ms Dawkins’ silver-masked protagonist, an evil rival chocolate maker to the event’s Willy Wonka rebrand Willy McDuff, was said to live inside walls and appeared from behind a mirror to terrify young visitors.
Visitors paid up to £35 a ticket for what promised to be a confectionery-themed wonderland, but disappointed children and parents were presented with inadequate props, half a cup of lemonade and a ration of jellybeans.
Many demanded refunds as they complained the event did not live up to expectations, and police were called to the scene. Willy McDuff actor Paul Connell told Wired that “the threat of violence had become quite high”.
Ms Dawkins, who is based in Glasgow, told the PA news agency it was “so funny” to think about the viral production in hindsight, but at the time she felt embarrassed to be part of it.
“When I was in the moment, I was just really, really embarrassed, like oh my gosh, I’m a part of this really bad acting thing, I was so embarrassed,” she said.
“People were coming up to me and being like, where do I get a refund? And I was like, I don’t know. I’m so sorry. I don’t know.
“Looking back on it, I’m so, so glad that I was a part of it, because I’ve got so much more reflection now as well and I think I’ve grown so much from it.”
She said the experience affected her “a lot”, especially as she was doing her GCSEs at the time.
“It was so crazy,” she said.
The teenager, who is attending drama school, said she “jumped” at the opportunity to take part in the Wonka event after her mother suggested it.
She quickly realised the production was ill-prepared after she went to the warehouse the day before it opened to the public and “nothing was set up”.
“I was just sitting there the whole day waiting for any direction of what I was supposed to do, and then I was given a script just before I went home, and it was like 15 pages of pure nonsense,” she said.
Ms Dawkins was originally cast to play Willy McDuff, but she was overwhelmed at having little time to memorise the long script and ultimately changed to The Unknown.
“I went home to my mum and I was like, mum, I cannot do this, I can’t memorise all this in a night – I was so, so panicked over it,” she said.
“It’s so weird but I’m definitely glad that I took the Unknown, because it was much easier – I just had to slink behind the mirror and make some creepy faces.”
She said she received no instructions on how to portray The Unknown and “just got sent behind the mirror and got told to improvise”.
After the production became a viral sensation, she gained thousands of followers on TikTok and a video of her revealing her identity has 2.5 million views.
Although she does not know exactly how much, she then made “a lot” of money on Cameo, a website on which celebrities can post personalised video messages for fans, charging £9.48 per clip, and was “so overwhelmed” by the volume of requests she received.
She was recognised frequently for her role as The Unknown by strangers, which she described as “so surreal” but “really nice at the same time”.
Ms Dawkins was even recognised while playing three characters at The London Dungeon in April, an opportunity afforded to her because of Willy’s Chocolate Experience.
“I want that to be my future job one day, it was so much fun – I’d go back in a heartbeat,” she said of the London Dungeon work.
She keeps in touch with several of the cast members, including the “glam “Oompa Loompa” Jenny Fogarty, and Michael Archibald, who was one of three Willy McDuff actors.
Ms Dawkins said she is focusing on her last year of school and a pantomime production of Aladdin in which she is performing.
“Right now, it’s just focusing on my exams, because this is my last year of school – I want to study acting and performance, that’s my dream,” she said.