Miles Teller: 'Acting is not a popularity contest'

Miles Teller has defended the fact he takes his career so seriously, insisting "acting is not a popularity contest".

The War Dogs star hit headlines earlier this year (17) when an Esquire magazine profile described him as a jerk, and ever since, the actor has been trying to shed the label, and explained in an interview with Vulture that his dedication to his job can often be misconstrued.

"Look, I don’t have Instagram and I’m not blowing up Twitter and I’ve still gotten cast in a bunch of great projects. I absolutely know actors that have been cast in things because they have a big social-media following but I don’t know - certain people expect that if you’re an actor in your 20s that you should be glad-hand-y and smiley and all that s**t," the 30-year-old told the news outlet. "Maybe some people have been turned off of me because I take what I’m doing pretty seriously and I don’t feel the need to charm everybody. So, do I think of acting as a popularity contest? No. Was it tough for me when that Esquire article came out? It was."

The Whiplash star also admitted that if he read a similar piece about someone else, he too would think they were "the biggest douchebag".

"The main idea in that story was that Miles Teller doesn’t give a rat’s a*s what you think of him," he continued. "That’s really not true. I absolutely do care what people think about me. But I can’t put much weight into whether the public likes me because the more important thing is that, as an actor, I can truly say that there’s not a single director or actor who I’ve worked with who’d have a bad thing to say about me. I’ve never missed a day of work. I’ve never not known a line. So I feel good about where I am."

When it comes to how he dealt with the backlash following the article, Miles stated that he wouldn't have been able to sleep "if I honestly felt like I was behaving like an a*shole to people".

He added: "I know the kind of brother I am. I know the kind of son I am. I’ve had the same friends since I was 14, 15. I’ve been with the same girl for four-and-a-half years. I have a dog. I know who I am, and it’s not who I was in that story."

Miles got engaged to girlfriend Keleigh Sperry in August.