Many in the entertainment community are showing support for actress Kelly Marie Tran, the Star Wars franchise's first woman of colour in a major role, after she deleted all her Instagram posts following months of trolling about her.
Tran's account, with 212,000 followers, remains active. The page's tagline, which had been "Am I doing this right?" in November, currently reads, "Afraid, but doing it anyway." Tran, a 29-year-old Vietnamese-American born in California, has no Twitter or Facebook accounts
While it was unclear Wednesday if the abuse extended to comments on her Instagram feed, the Last Jedi actress has been suffering trolling for months.
Kelly Marie Tran as Rose in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Photo: Jonathan Olley
The page for her character, Resistance fighter Rose Tico, on the Star Wars wiki 'Wookieepedia' has been locked "due to vandalism and unwanted edits" following offensive and racist revisions. Alt-right internet personality Paul Ray Ramsey in December tweeted harassing comments about Tran's appearance, with his post being retweeted 103 times and earning 442 likes.
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Tran hs received support from famous fans in the wake of the online abuse.
"This girl is a force to be reckoned with and there will be no slander against her name. #kellymarietran," tweeted comedian Margaret Cho on Wednesday.
Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood praised Tran and "her incredible work in The Last Jedi.", as did The Big Sick star Kumail Nanjiani.
"I totally embarrassingly fanned out when I met Kelly Marie Tran. Rose Tico was unequivocally one of the highlights of The Last Jedi. You'd have to be an idiot to disagree with that. I look forward to the hundreds of awesome things she will make over the course of her long career. #TeamTran," he wrote.
Author Claudia Gray, whose young-adult novels include Star Wars: Lost Stars, said she was "very, very angry Kelly Marie Tran was harassed by these ghouls".
"Maybe I'm supposed to say something like 'I respect all opinions,' but I don't. I have zero respect for the harassers," she wrote. "Kindness matters. Decency matters. If you don't understand that, you were never a Star Wars fan to begin with."
Tran isn't the first Star Wars star to face vicious online bullying. Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey in the franchise's most recent films, deleted her Instagram in 2016 following abuse she received after posting a message in support of gun control.
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