Tran compares her experience to having a very public, “embarrassingly horrible breakup.”
Kelly Marie Tran landed the role of a lifetime when she was cast as Rose Tico in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — becoming the first woman of color in a lead role in the series.
What followed, however, was a wave of social media toxicity, as a very vocal subset of “fans” took out their frustrations over the character on Tran herself. It got so bad, she wound up quitting social media — and has no plans to return.
“I left. I said no to a lot of things,” she told THR in a new interview. “It felt like I was just hearing the voice of my agents and my publicity team and all of these people telling me what to say and what to do and how to feel. And I realized, I didn’t know how I felt anymore. And I didn’t remember why I was in this in the first place.”
“I’ve truly just been so much happier without being on the internet,” she added. “I’ve had my agents tell me [I’m] forgoing brand partnerships, but I’m not here to sell flat-tummy tea to young girls.”
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As she still does have active accounts, she doesn’t post — and only engages in “one-sided social media,” where she’ll take a look at what’s trending but doesn’t obsess over what people are saying about her work.
Looking back at what she went through, Tran said it felt like she “fell in love very publicly and then very publicly had an embarrassingly horrible breakup.”
She told the publication she started therapy after leaving social media and learned that “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 has since struck a balance where she can “continue to work” in the entertainment industry, while protecting her mental health and telling stories “that I feel like the world needs to hear.”
“Hope, for me, looks like reminding yourself that to get where you are, you’ve survived some shit,” added Tran. “When the world is moving so quickly and there are all these voices saying ‘If you don’t do this, you’ll never work again,’ if you really come into your power and surround yourself with people who are honoring your voice and their own voices — I guess that’s how I got through it.”
Out next for the actress is “Raya and the Last Dragon,” which drops on Disney+ with Premier Access this Friday, March 5.
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