Kelly Marie Tran talks rising above 'Star Wars' bullying, staying off social media
Tran's latest film, Disney's "Raya and the Last Dragon," releases March 5.
Kelly Marie Tran's rise from relative unknown to landing the role of Rose Tico in 2017's "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi" was a real-life fairytale that quickly became a nightmare.
The 32-year-old actress, who is of Vietnamese descent, shut down her social media accounts after being targeted by racist and sexist attacks.
Regarding her decision to ditch social media, the "Raya and the Last Dragon" star told The Hollywood Reporter, "What's interesting to me about working in this industry is that certain things become so public, even if you don't really mean them to be, [like] the succession of events in which I left the internet for my own sanity."
"It was basically me being like, 'Oh, this isn't good for my mental health. I'm obviously going to leave this,'" she added.
Tran went on to say the whole experience felt like she "fell in love very publicly and then very publicly had an embarrassingly horrible breakup."
She turned to therapy as a way of coping with the insults, and learned, "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. Maybe they just don't have the imagination to understand that there are different types of people living in the world."
Tran also said she's unlikely to return to social media, explaining, "I've truly just been so much happier without being on the internet."
She does admit to engaging in what she and her friends call "one-sided social media," to stay on top of of current events and trending topics. However, she self-imposes "extreme limits" when looking up reactions to her own work.
Disney is the parent company of Lucasfilm as well as ABC News and "Good Morning America."
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