American filmmaker Kevin Smith has revealed he is regularly targeted with abuse from online trolls after switching to a vegan diet, but says he isn’t bothered as veganism ‘saved my life’.

Smith turned vegan thanks to influence from his daughter Harley Quinn Smith earlier this year after he suffered a heart attack.

He has since lost 70 pounds and turned his health around by focusing his diet on healthy, plant-based eating.

The actor was at the Mercy for Animals 20th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, where he told Variety he gets abuse on social media when he posts about veganism

“It’s to the point where I include a trigger warning,” he said. 

“Whenever I post something about being vegan, they get pretty upset and say ‘I’m going to eat four times as much meat’ and I’m like, ‘See you in hell.’ I’m not saying you need to do this. I’m just responding to questions about why I look the way I look suddenly, so you have to be very careful about how you couch it because some people feel like I’ve had so much taken away, now you are going to take away my meat. 

“Do what you want. I took away my meat to save my life.”

Smith presented animal rights campaigner Lindsay Oliver with a Hidden Heroes Award during the event. 

Kat Von D

Vegan model Kat Von D was also at the awards evening, and was given the Hope Award. 

She used the event to promote tougher animal protection laws. 

“I think hiding behind the idea of things being cage-free is a joke,” she said. 

“There’s no humane way of exploiting an animal. It’s like he had an awesome life up until when we slit his throat. 

“To me, it doesn’t make sense. I think the whole purpose of being an environmentalist in general is that you can’t do that unless you really contemplate what you are putting on your plate.”

• Read: Arnold Schwarzenegger has ditched meat and dairy to focus on plant-based eating

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