The Acolyte star Jodie Turner-Smith has criticised Disney’s handling of the backlash the Star Wars spin-off received when it began streaming last month.
Jodie played coven leader Mother Aniseya in the Disney+ series, which was recently confirmed to have been cancelled after one season despite mostly positive reviews.
Reports initially suggested that this was due to low viewing figures, although lead actor Amandla Stenberg has since spoken out about the backlash the show faced from more bigoted members of the Star Wars fan community, due to its diverse cast.
In an Instagram post, Amandla said there’d been a “rampage” of “hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudiced hatred and hateful language” aimed at the show since it first began streaming.
Speaking to Glamour magazine, Jodie agreed with this stance, and questioned why Disney didn’t do more to deter it.
“They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting fucking dog-piled on the internet with racism and bullshit,” she said.
“It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair.”
Jodie continued: “It would just be nice if the people that have all the money were showing their support and putting their feet down. 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 colour, 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.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Disney for comment.
On a more optimistic note, Jodie added: “Opinions change. What’s in vogue changes. We’re gonna get there at some point, to that place where people stop having a stick up their arse about people of colour being a part of IPs that were created by white people.
“You know why? Because we’re never going to fucking stop participating.”
Star Wars actor John Boyega has also been critical of Disney since his time playing Finn in the reboot trilogy came to an end.
“What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side,” he told GQ in 2020. “It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.”
He added: “You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all.
“So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience...’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience.
“They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.”
Like Jodie, he also called for major film studios to do more to help actors of colour who face racism when joining major movie franchises.
Help and support:
- Young Minds offers information on racism and mental health for younger people.
- SARI (Stand Against Racism and Inequality) provides help to victims of hate.
- Stop Hate UK works to challenge all forms of hate.
- Tell MAMA supports victims of anti-Muslim hate.