Kelly Marie Tran said that she was ready to celebrate “all the parts of herself”, years after facing a toxic hatred campaign by fans of “Star Wars”.
The film “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” of 2017 was supposed to be Tran’s big break in Hollywood. She was The first Asian-American cast in a main role in a film “Star Wars”s.
However, some fans did not like the film and the character of Tran, and began to send racist, misogynist and shameful comments and death threats to social networks. Hatred continued for months, several casting comrades coming to the defense of Tran against online trolls.
Tran then deleted all of his Instagram messages and left social media. The role of his character was clearly reduced in the film “Star Wars” following. The productions had different directors and the reduction of Tran screen time would have been for technical reasons, however, the criticisms argued that this excuse seemed fragile.
Fans groups harassing the actors, especially women of color, to appear in their favorite franchises were a disturbing trend. Rachel Zegler, Moses Ingram and Amandla Stenberg have also received similar vitriol in recent years.
Tran told Business Insider after talking to mental health professionals for years, she can now see the joy of her “Star Wars” experience.
“I always have this experience with such a penchant in my heart because there was so much creativity, professionalism and artistic talent on these sets,” said Tran.
“It allowed me to enter these hearing rooms, I would never have been for a million years if I had not done this job.”
Rose Tico was 76 seconds of screen time in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”. Disney / Lucasfilm
Tran said that online criticism had made him realized his own internalized, misogyny and shame racism about his body. She said that experience had opened a door to her to decrease “the scary path to understand how to cure”.
“I wouldn’t be who I’m without it today,” she added.
Tran told Bi: “via the therapy and the advice that brought me to a point where I can make art celebrating the parts of myself that I have been taught to be ashamed. For which I was persecuted.”
She said that her new film “The Wedding Banquet”, which was presented in first on April 18, is part of her new goal of playing in films that celebrate her identity.
The film is a remake of the romantic drama of Ang Lee in the same name. In this document, Tran plays Angela, a lesbian who marries the boyfriend of her best friend (played by Han Gi-Chan) so that he can get a green card to stay in the United States and hide his sexuality from his homophobic grandparents.
Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran play amateurs in “The Wedding Banquet”. Luka Cyprian / Bleecker Street / Shivhans Pictures
Tran was released as a queer in an article by Vanity Fair published in November 2024 at the start of the press tour “The Wedding Banquet”.
She told Bi that the film was something she “needed 10 years ago”.
“It’s so Asian, it is so strange, so honest with its ability to represent authentically what it is a child of immigrants,” said Tran.
Tran told Bi that the Vanity Fair team had given him a few months to consider his decision to release before publishing the article.
Tran said that she was grateful when he came out of having given the time to think about the article.
“With hindsight, I am like, Wow, I really would not have been able to think of a more perfect way to celebrate this part of myself, and I am very grateful that it happened in this way.”
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