STAR WARS Actress Kelly Marie Tran Leaves Social Media After Being Bullied and Harassed For Months
After months of being harassed online, Star Wars: The Last Jedi co-star Kelly Marie Tran has left social media. The actress played Rose in the film and there were a bunch of Star Wars jerks out there that bullied her because of her looks and Asian ethnicity. The news came from the official Star Wars Twitter account:
Kelly Marie Tran has deleted all the posts off her Instagram due to months of harassment she has received for her character Rose in #TheLastJedi pic.twitter.com/ipxdbDH30C
— Star Wars Facts (@SWTweets) June 5, 2018
This is so freakin' sad. People should be better than this. Here is a young woman that gets the role of a lifetime! She gets to star in Star Wars movie! This is supposed to be one of the best and coolest things ever for her! So many people dream of being in a Star Wars movie and she actually gets in! Then the whole experience is ruined with this complete and utter ugliness. On top of the bullying she received, the “Wookieepedia” page for Tran’s character was altered by contributors with offensive, racist language. This whole thing sucks and is completely heartbreaking.
Tran ended up deleting all of the posts from social media, leaving just a black and white profile photo and a bio that reads "Afraid, but doing it anyway."
Look, it's fine if fans didn't like The Last Jedi. I totally get it and respect peoples opinions and it's ok to argue and debate with one another over the films in the franchise, but harassing and bullying are totally uncalled for. Director Rian Johnson had this to say:
On social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall, but over the past 4 years I’ve met lots of real fellow SW fans. We like & dislike stuff but we do it with humor, love & respect. We’re the VAST majority, we’re having fun & doing just fine. https://t.co/yhcShg5vdJ
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
During the premiere of The Last Jedi, Tran told Variety that bringing diversity to the franchise has "been both an honor and a responsibility. I feel so overwhelmed. A lot of ‘Star Wars’ fans who are specifically Asian never had a character they could dress up like, or they would and people would always call them ‘Asian Rey’ or ‘Asian fill-in-the-blank.’ I get very emotional when I see people who are able to identify with this character. That means a lot to me and I don’t think it will ever get old."
The world needs to be a lot kinder to each other. We need to bring joy into people's lives, not try and crush them and their spirit. We should all be uplifting each other! Star Wars is supposed to inspire that in us!