Young Steve Buscemi Trends After Actor Is Mistaken for Donovan Leitch

Steve Buscemi's name trended on Twitter on Monday after a photograph purporting to show the actor in his 20s started circulating.

However, the actor in the viral post is not a young Buscemi but Donovan Leitch.

The caption accompanying the picture reads: "Steve Buscemi at the premiere of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth."

The photo had garnered more than 30,000 likes by the time of publishing, but Twitter users were quick to point out that the man in the photo had been misidentified.

Per Getty images, the real caption for the photo states that the photo is The Blob actor Leitch at the Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth Hollywood Premiere on September 11, 1992. The event was held at the Hollywood Galaxy theatre.

The mix-up has led to the social media users heaping praise on Boardwalk Empire star, Buscemi, and posting a plethora of images from him in his youth.

The response caused the name of the Brooklyn actor, now 63, to trend on Twitter.

"Steve Buscemi is one of the best characters of our time. Just saying," reads one tweet.

"Real young Steve Buscemi is cute how dare you people," said another.

While another added: "we know u lyin anyways steve buscemi is hotter."

Another tweet reads: "Since Steve Buscemi is trending I want to take this time to say he is such a hugely underrated actor with wide range."

Buscemi is of course recognizable for his hooded blue eyes, and while he is not known as a Hollywood heartthrob, pictures of his younger self are getting a lot of love on Twitter today.

The trend also sparked a number of jokes with many posting pictures of other actors and joking that they too are young Buscemi.

"I'm not like the other girls. I know what Steve Buscemi looked like in the 80s," joked another Twitter user.

Speaking about his career in a 2020 interview with GQ, Buscemi said that prior to landing the lead role on HBO's Boardwalk Empire as Nucky Thompson, he felt he was at an "odd age" to play many characters.

"I felt like I was at an odd age where I was too old to play some characters, not old enough to play other characters," he said.

"I don't have the tolerance for violence that I used to," he added.
As for his appearance on The Sopranos, he joked: "Where does it go after you get killed by Tony Soprano? That should be the cutoff."