Advertisement

Kelly Marie Tran, ‘Last Jedi’ actor, faces racist online harassment

Click to play video: 'Kelly Marie Tran, ‘Last Jedi’ actor, faces racist online harassment'
Kelly Marie Tran, ‘Last Jedi’ actor, faces racist online harassment
WATCH: Kelly Marie Tran, who stars as Rose Tico in “The Last Jedi” has been facing intense online harassment – Dec 29, 2017

Asian-American actor Kelly Marie Tran, who stars as Rose Tico in the Star Wars franchise’s latest film The Last Jedi, has been facing intense online harassment from purported fans.

Ever since the movie’s release on Dec. 15, Tran has been on the receiving end of some brutal online comments.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle’s sister, Samantha, responds to Prince Harry’s ‘family’ remark

Last week, the Rose Tico page of the Star Wars-oriented reference site Wookieepedia (modelled after the user-generated Wikipedia) was altered by an unknown user into a melange of racist statements. [You can see the page, unedited, at that link. Be warned, there is foul language.]
Story continues below advertisement

The anonymous person renamed Rose Tico to “Ching Chong Wing Tong,” and referred to her as “stupid, autistic and retarded.”

Rose Tico’s homeworld — actually called Hays Minor — was renamed “Ching Chong China.” The user also attributed a fake quote to Rose: “Heil Hitler and I don’t know why I was casted in a good movie like Star Wars.”

Breaking news from Canada and around the world sent to your email, as it happens.

READ MORE: Men to join women and wear all black to Golden Globes 2018 ceremony

The page has since been changed back and it is now locked, preventing any further editing, says Fandom, the company in charge of Wookieepedia.

“Fandom has a zero-tolerance policy for vandalism, inclusive of racism and harassment,” said a company rep. “The wiki admins take this very seriously and took the steps to resolve this situation as quickly as possible, including escalation to our team, and subsequent lockdown. This lockdown will remain for the foreseeable future and we will be closely monitoring activity on this wiki.”

WATCH BELOW: Why is ‘The Last Jedi’ so divisive?

Story continues below advertisement

Fandom tracked down the user as well, who has now been banned from Wookieepedia and any other wiki site. His or her name has not been released.

Other trolls have been insulting Tran on Twitter.

Tran seems to be taking the online harassment in stride, and posted a positive message to her Instagram page.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc2ZG0enIQk/

Tran, 28, is Vietnamese-American, and the first woman of Asian descent to have a leading role in the Star Wars franchise.

Sponsored content

AdChoices