Star Wars: The Last Jedi actress Kelly Marie Tran has wiped her Instagram account clean after enduring months of harassment on social media
Star Wars: The Last Jedi actress Kelly Marie Tran has wiped her Instagram account clean after enduring months of harassment on social media.
The 29-year-old actress, the first Asian-American woman to appear in a lead role in the popular film series, removed all photos from her Instagram page on Tuesday. She left only her profile picture and bio that reads, “Afraid, but doing it anyway.”
Tran made her debut as resistance fighter Rose Tico in December’s latest installment, but not all fans were welcoming to the new character or Tran’s ethnicity (she’s Vietnamese-American).
“Ching Chong Wing Tong,” her name on Wookieepedia read at one point, according to the Huffington Post. The person who posted the racist entry has been banned from editing on the website, says Newsweek.
The Last Jedi director, Rian Johnson, took to Twitter on Tuesday to call out trolls.
“What we talk about when we talk about manbabies,” he wrote.
In another tweet, he added, “On social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall, but over the past 4 years I’ve met lots of real fellow SW fans. We like & dislike stuff but we do it with humor, love & respect. We’re the VAST majority, we’re having fun & doing just fine.”
Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the series, also chimed in.
“Same here, but over the past 40 years for me,” he wrote in response to Johnson’s tweet.
Ahead of The Last Jedi‘s release, Tran told PEOPLE she still hasn’t quite wrapped her head around her overnight fame (Star Wars marked her first major movie role).
“I just still can’t believe it’s all happening,” she said. “I keep having to remind myself that I’m in a movie. I’ll just go to LA Fitness and go to Ralph’s and go to the grocery store — and nobody knows who I am. Then I come to these events and I’m living this weird Hannah Montana life.”
But Tran’s advice for herself was to simply enjoy the ride.
“I would tell myself just to be present and soak in every single moment,” she said. “It’s such a special experience that you just want to really experience every second of it.”
