Robert Kazinsky, who will be playing Orgrim Doomhammer (pictured below) in the upcoming Warcraft movie, recently paid a visit to Conan O’Brien’s show to chat about the film. Judging by the interview, it seems his familiarity with the franchise goes a lot deeper than one might expect. In fact, he credits World of Warcraft for saving his life.

During the interview, Kazinsky shined a bright light on an unfortunate facet of our celebrity-worshipping society. Though most actors are praised for their work, the ones who play the bad guys on the big/small screens aren’t as lucky.

After playing a tough guy on the British show EastEnders, “fans” often harassed him in the streets, because they associated him with the crummy things he did on screen. He recalled having insults, stones and fists hurled his way. The unfair abuse soon pushed him to hide his face, and opt for staying home instead of going out.

If that isn’t a scary depiction of humanity’s lack of understanding that actors and the characters they play aren’t one in the same, I don’t know what is.

Kazinsky then found solace in playing World of Warcraft. You see, the great thing about playing a video game online is that nobody knows who you are. You’re able to take on another persona, and connect with people in another way.

“I was able to forge new relationships that didn’t come with any preconceptions and I was slowly given these rewards in game that, believe it or not, affected my confidence, gave me the boost and before you know it I was able to have a little bit of self-belief again,” Kazinsky told Conan. “I credit World of Warcraft with saving my life.”

But, with his new confidence, he also gained about 50 pounds.

“I’ve never been happier than when I was really fat and no one had any expectations of me and I was playing video games.”

Ah, it looks like he found his happy ending. For more on their conversation, check out the video above.

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HT: Conan