Does Gina Carano deserve what happened to her? In a new interview with THR, the “Star Wars” actress spoke about her dismissal from “The Mandalorian,” her ongoing lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm, and her focus on “clearing my name.” Carano lost her role as “Cara Dune” on the popular Disney+ series in February 2021, after the actress’s several controversial social media posts led to Lucasfilm dropping her.
Carano claims she wasn’t told about her firing firsthand, but instead found about it on the internet—like everybody else. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” read the statement from the studio. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Carano was also quickly dropped by her agency, UTA, and her Hollywood law firm, Ziffren Brittenham.
The actress didn’t take to getting cancelled well. “I just laid down and cried and cried,” remembered Carano. “I curled into a fetal position. It’s not that I didn’t think that something like that could happen. It was that I couldn’t imagine they would put out this horrendous statement about me after working with me — the most powerful entertainment company in the world saying that about me.” But the actress’s presence on social media continually chafed again the corporate culture at Disney. Repeated posts about divisive topics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines, the 2020 US Presidential elections the Black Lives Matter movement, transgender rights, and others bred tension between Carano and Lucasfilm.
Then, she got in further hot water when she added “boop/bop/beep” to her Twitter bio, seemingly mocking the use of pronouns on social media. Disney HR sent her to “reeducation camp” for media training, but the controversial posts continued. Carano still doesn’t the backlash she received for her Twitter bio change. “Boop/bop/beep? Seriously? This was the start of the end for me?” Carano mused. “A 20-year career, the blood, sweat and tears of fighting? I never compromised myself for a job. I never ended [up] in a bad situation where I did anything inappropriate. I had a clean and clear climb to where I got to and was going to just keep going. And boop/bop/beep was that harmful?”
But that incident wasn’t the breaking point for Disney. That came when Carano posted a meme on February 10, 2021 that compared having differing political views to being Jewish in Nazi Germany. The post featured a photo of a Jewish woman being chased by a boy holding a bat during the Holocaust, with the caption, “How is this any different from hating someone for their political views?” The backlash was immediate, with many taking to Instagram and Twitter to promote the hashtag “#FireGinaCarano.” And Disney did shortly afterward. Carano still defends the post, claiming it “just made sense — don’t hate your neighbor. Before the Nazis were as powerful as they became, you had to make it OK to hate this person next to you. That’s how we get to dangerous places. And history does repeat itself.” But Disney was too fed up with the actress to be understanding.
Carano first gained fame as a female MMA fighter before Hollywood scouts noticed her and she began working in the film industry. Most of her filmography was direct-to-video, but Steven Soderbergh‘s interest in her, which led to her starring in his 2011 spy thriller “Haywire,” boosted her acting career. After that film, she had roles in “Fast & Furious 6” and “Deadpool” before Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm called her about “The Mandalorian.” Carano recalled a meeting with Favreau when she realized how big the role of Cara Dune was. “Her face was one of the few that was fully visible,” said the actress about looking at character mock-ups for the series. “And he’s like, ‘This is who we’d like you to be.’ That’s when you start to realize, ‘Oh my gosh — this is huge.’”
After appearances in the first two seasons of “The Mandalorian,” Carano’s Dune quickly became a fan favorite, and Favreau even had plans for Carano to star in a spinoff series on Disney+ titled “Rangers Of The New Republic.” But the actress’s online presence derailed those plans. Now, Carano has a lawsuit filed against the corporation in California federal court for allegations of wrongful termination and discrimination, with an appeal for Lucasfilm to rehire her as Cara Dune. And Carano has a man arguably as powerful as Disney in her corner: Elon Musk. “I think it’s pretty incredible what he is doing,” she said of his support. “A lot of billionaires put their money into buying islands and building bunkers. Elon Musk is using his money to fight massive injustice battles.”
But Disney has yet to respond to Carano’s lawsuit, and has until April 9 to do so. Last month, a CNBC journalist asked Disney CEO Bob Iger if he had any comment about the Carano-Lucasfilm matter, to which Iger responded, “None.” The actress called Iger’s response a “wise answer,” but it also hints that Disney may not see Carano’s suit as something worth engaging in, at least publicly. Still, Carano wants to settle the matter and move on. “You won’t find a perfect person in me, but you will find a person who was doing her absolute best under one of the most aggressive unnecessary cancellations in Hollywood history,” she told THR. “This has been one of the toughest growth spurts of my life and I don’t plan on wasting what I have learned.”
