The last couple of years has seen a rise in toxic behavior and online harassment from so-called “fans” of big franchises like “Star Wars” or DC movies, but one of the ugliest examples of this was the intense racism and sexism against “The Last Jedi” actress Kelly Marie Tran. After incessant harassment online, Tran, who was the first woman of color to have a major role in a “Star Wars” film, “closed up shop” and left all social media.
Now, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote her new barrier-breaking role as the first Southeast Asian Disney princess in “Raya and the Last Dragon,” Tran describes her experience following the release of “The Last Jedi” as if she “fell in love very publicly and then very publicly had an embarrassingly horrible breakup.”
“If someone doesn’t understand me or my experience, it shouldn’t be my place to have to internalize their misogyny or racism or all of the above,” Tran said of the online bullying. “Maybe they just don’t have the imagination to understand that there are different types of people living in the world.”
Other than an op-ed in The New York Times, where she wrote a scathing essay about the harassment directed at her for the color of her skin, Tran has mostly stayed out of the spotlight.
“I left. I said no to a lot of things,” Tran explained. “It felt like I was just hearing the voice of my agents and my publicity team and all of these people telling me what to say and what to do and how to feel. And I realized, I didn’t know how I felt anymore. And I didn’t remember why I was in this in the first place.”
She continued, “Any time that happens, I have to close up shop and go away for a while and really interact in the real world — read books and journal and go on hikes and look at a tree and remind myself that there was a fire that burned inside of me before ‘Star Wars,’ before any of this. And I needed to find that again.”