Love Actually actor Bill Nighy is reportedly the latest celebrity caught on camera by a YouTube prankster using Meta’s controversial smart glasses.
The 76-year-old star is said to have been left “unsettled” after social media influencer Jack Jones approached him while wearing Ray-Ban glasses equipped with a discreet camera.
Jones, who built his online following through staged phone-call pranks, confronted Nighy outside a London café and recorded their exchange without the actor’s consent.
The footage was later posted on Jones’s YouTube channel, which has around 500,000 subscribers.
In the video, Jones can be seen wearing the glasses, developed by Meta, the company behind Facebook. He calls to Nighy outside the café: “Excuse me, Bill, I’m going to have to report you.”
The two-time Bafta winner appears confused and replies: “For?”
“For being the best actor in the world,” Jones responds, before continuing to ask Nighy personal questions.
A source close to Nighy described the influencer’s conduct as “very unpleasant and disrespectful”.
Bill Nighy, 76, is reportedly “unsettled” after social media influencer Jack Jones approached him while wearing camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses
Jack Jones, known for his fake phone-call videos, approached Nighy outside a London café and filmed their conversation without the actor’s consent
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This was not the first apparent encounter between Jones and Nighy at what appears to be the same café.
In a separate video posted two years ago, Jones startled the actor from behind by shouting, “Good afternoon, Philip” — a reference to Nighy’s character in the 2004 comedy Shaun Of The Dead.
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Nighy jumps up in shock and walks away as Jones continues recording, repeatedly asking: “Where is Shaun, Philip?”
Viewers condemned the stunt in a series of comments, describing it as “vile” and “a horrible thing to do”.
A year later, Jones posted another clip titled “Me and Bill Nighy have squashed the beef”, in which he appeared to apologise by presenting the actor with flowers.
The use of Meta’s smart glasses to record people without their knowledge has faced widespread criticism.
Although the devices are marketed to content creators, critics say they have also been used by stalkers and harassers, prompting some to label them “pervert glasses”.
A growing number of venues and businesses, including Wetherspoon pubs, theatres and schools, have banned the glasses.
In August, ministers in Australia and Norway revealed they were considering banning and regulating wearable gadgets with cameras.
Jones, 33, made his name in the mid-2010s for prank videos that included honking horns behind people in the street and telling people they had a spider on their shoulder.
Responding to the latest video of Nighy, Jones insisted that he had the actor’s consent to upload the recording.
He said: ‘I approached Bill while I was filming content using the Meta glasses.
‘I explained that I had been filming and showed him the type of content I create, which is mainly positive videos involving flowers, kindness and doing nice things for people.
‘Bill was very nice about it and seemed to like what I was doing. There was no intention to make him look bad or embarrass him in any way.
‘The whole purpose of my content is to create positive moments and spread a bit of kindness, and that’s exactly the context of the interaction.’
