'Star Wars' actress deletes Instagram following months of harassment
The internet can be a cruel place. Interspersed between the tight-knit communities and ever-growing fandoms lie internet trolls who delight from making people feel bad about some innocuous comment, or you know, the entirety of their existence.
Case in point: Star Wars actor, Kelly Marie Tran, who has seemingly deleted all the posts from her personal Instagram account, following months of internet abuse from fans of the film.
Tran, who played Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi - a mechanic who befriends Finn (John Boyega) and ultimately saves his life - was the first woman of colour to play a leading role in the franchise.
Reports that Tran was facing sexist and racist comments following her appearance in The Last Jedi started to circulate back in December, when Rose Tico's description on the Star Wars "Wookieepedia" was altered to feature offensive language. The text, which has since been changed back to the original character description, saw Tico be referred to as "Ching Chong Wing Tong", and she was also called "stupid, autistic and retarded."
As well as this, Tran was subjected to racist trolling on Twitter. Alt-right internet personality Paul Ray Ramsey took aim at the actor's physical appearance on the social media platform, writing "Battlestar Galactica Asian vs. #LastJedi Asian. Obviously, The First Order failed to cut off the #Resistance supply line of food."
Now, Star Wars Facts has reported that Tran has deleted all the posts from her Instagram account due to the harassment, and naturally the people of the internet were appalled at how the 29-year-old has been treated.
"Kelly marie tran deleted her Instagram because some of you grown ass ugly troglodytes couldn’t dislike a goddamned star wars character without harassing the actress who played her!" one Twitter user wrote, while another corroborated, "Kelly marie tran literally posted nothing but cute positive daily posts and y’all dudebro gremlins harassed her so much you drove her off insta. f*ck all y’all for thinking you can just comment your uninvited opinion about rose on a post that has nothing to do with it."
A third individual added, "Kelly marie tran deserves better than the star wars fandom that can’t seem to grasp the idea that she’s an actual person not her character."
At the time of the release of The Last Jedi, Tran expressed how delighted she was to be welcomed into the Star Wars universe. "So many people wish for something like this. I still don’t believe I’m doing it," she asserted. "Rose is not an amazing pilot or a jedi. She’s strong in a different way. And I think that’s kinda how she holds her own… I’m making a Star Wars movie. I just feel so lucky to see how much work goes into everything and to see the end product. It’s been magical."
Tran's exit from social media follows that of Daisy Ridley. Ridley confessed that she was forced to turn to therapy to deal with the onslaught of abuse she was subjected to from the Star Wars fanbase, who are known for being intensely critical and are seemingly unable to separate the characters from the actors who depict them onscreen.