“Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ actor Kelly Marie Tran has opened up about her decision to leave social media after being subjected to severe sexist and racist trolling for her role of Rose Tico in the film.
In June, the actor had deleted all of her Instagram posts after being trolled.
Tran who became the first woman of colour to have a lead role in the sci-fi franchise, said the trolling impacted her in a negative way, strengthening her own insecurities of growing up as an Asian kid in America.
“It wasn’t their words, it’s that I started to believe them. Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories,” she said in an op-ed in the a US leading daily.
“Their words reinforced a narrative I had heard my whole life: that I was ‘other’ that I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t good enough, simply because I wasn’t like them. And that feeling, I realize now, was, and is, shame, a shame for the things that made me different, a shame for the culture from which I came from. And to me, the most disappointing thing was that I felt it at all.”
Tran said as someone who had been given the chance to tell stories, she is not going to give up on building the world of her dreams despite facing negativity.
“You might know me as Kelly. I am the first woman of color to have a leading role in a ‘Star Wars’ movie. I am the first Asian woman to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair. My real name is Loan. And I am just getting started,” she said.
