Kelly Marie Tran’s Real-Life Resistance Means Telling Her Own Story, Starting with Her Name
The ’Star Wars’ heroine breaks her silence, determined to define her own narrative after months of online abuse
By Gene Park
Loan Tran is reclaiming her true identity and her narrative.
And with a personal essay in The New York Times, her break from silence is an act of resistance against toxic fans who see nothing beyond the stories they want to hear, and think nothing of the very real experiences of the storytellers.
Known as Kelly Marie Tran in Hollywood, she was chased off of social media after a relentless bullying campaign against her over her role as Rose Tico, the first leading role for a woman of color in a “Star Wars” film. Episode 8 of the series, “The Last Jedi,” divided its fan base, which is par for the course for anything “Star Wars.” But some online commenters’ complaints about the film and her character led them to attack her personally. In sharp contrast to her earnest Instagram posts basking in the joy of being a “Star Wars” hero, a barrage of racist and abusive comments criticized her looks and her ethnicity.
Tran outlines exactly why it was particularly harmful to her:
