United Kingdom, April 2 -- Dan Stevens finds it "terrifying" that actors are being cast on the strength of their social media following.

The 42-year-old actor - who shot to international stardom as Matthew Crawley in 'Downton Abbey' - has admitted to being horrified by Hollywood's current obsession with social media numbers.

Dan - who has less than one million followers on Instagram - told the Daily Mail newspaper: "You hear about people being cast because they have a certain number of Instagram followers, and that's terrifying. It's trying to put a metric on popularity ... and it just doesn't work."

Dan is saddened that casting decisions are being made on the basis of "an algorithmic spreadsheet".

The 'Beauty and the Beast' star said...