October 09, 2024
Star Wars parent company Disney was under fire for seemingly not doing enough to protect the stars of The Acolytes from racism attacks.
Jodie Turner-Smith, the actor in the now-cancelled series, called out the studio in an interview with Glamour UK.
“It’s disappointing to feel like your studio is not having your back in a very public-facing way,” adding, “They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting ****** dog-piled on the internet with racism and ********,” she said after the series lead star Amandla Stenberg along with other actors of colour faced racist attacks from some fans of Star Wars.
“It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair,” she continued. “It would just be nice if the people that have all the money were showing their support and putting their feet down,” the star, who played Mother Aniseya, said.
“Say this is unacceptable: ‘You’re not a fan if you do this.’ Make a really big statement and just see if any money leaves. I bet you it won’t, because people of color, and especially Black people, make up a very large percentage of buying power.”
“They might find that it’s actually more lucrative for them, but everyone’s using ‘woke’ like it’s a dirty word,” she concluded.