Augustus Gloop from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory': see how he's changed!
Do you remember this kid? He's Philip Wiegratz, the boy who played one of the five lucky children with a golden ticket in Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' in 2005.
Augustus Gloop starred alongside Johnny Depp, who was in his prime at the time. Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' cost no less than $150 million to make.
Image: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) / Warner Bros.
The film was a smashing success, grossing more than $475 million at the box office. It also propelled two of its child leads, Freddie Highmore and AnnaSophia Robb, to global fame.
Image: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) / Warner Bros.
Another child star in the movie was this boy. Although extremely memorable, Gloop isn't exactly the star of the show. Instead, he's the first kid to leave the factory after falling into the chocolate river.
Image: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) / Warner Bros.
The Oompa Loompas described the character perfectly in a song they sang as they pulled him out of the chocolate river:
"Augustus Gloop, Augustus Gloop/
The great big greedy nincompoop /
Augustus Gloop, so big and vile, /
So greedy, foul, and infantile."
Image: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) / Warner Bros.
In real life, Philip Wiegratz continued to work as an actor for a while. However, he would soon disassociate himself from acting and give a remarkable twist to his career.
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Like his character, Wiegratz was born in Germany - specifically in Magdeburg, in 1993. His role in the Tim Burton film was his first. It couldn't have been a bigger debut. He was 12 years old when he caught the casting director's attention.
Image: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) / Warner Bros.
Although Gloop was a very chubby kid, Wiegratz wasn't so round. Instead of putting on weight for the role, he wore a fat suit.
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
Playing Gloop wasn't exactly an easy role. Not only did Wiegratz do his own stunts in the Chocolate River in a fat suit, but he also was a voice actor for the video game, even though his English was still quite limited at the time.
Image: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) / Warner Bros.
The bad thing about starting at the top of Hollywood is that it's a major battle to keep up the momentum, especially as a little German boy with limited English and acting experience.
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
That said, his acting career shifted from Los Angeles to Europe. For the next eight years, all the rest of his roles were in film and TV in his native Germany.
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
He starred in 'A guest for Christmas' (Es ist ein Elch entsprungen, 2005) the three 'Die Wilden Hünher' (2006, 2007 and 2009) films, the children's series 'Ki Ka Live' and TV shows 'Krimi.de' (2008) and 'Die wölfe' (2009).
His last appearances were in 'Lore' (2012), 'Ruby, the Last Time Traveler' (Rubinrot, 2013), and 'Mein Sommer '88' (2013).
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
From then on, Wiegratz said goodbye to acting and embraced his new profession: a computer engineer!
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
Wiegratz is currently living a very normal-seeming life and is passionate about traveling and doing sports. He's not even into social media, as he only posts once per year.
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
No matter what, his Augustus Gloop will always stay in the hearts of fans. Even in Wiegratz's recent Instagram post, having traded being stuck in chocolate for mud, commenters reminded him of when he found "zeh golzen ticket."
Photo: dr-wigratz / Instagram
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