Jodie Turner-Smith, who played Mother Aniseya in The Acolyte, has called out Disney for not doing enough to defend the cast - particularly Amandla Stenberg - when they were targetted for online abuse.
Back in August, we got word that Lucasfilm/Disney would not be moving forward with a second season of the Disney+ Star Wars series, despite several major storylines and character arcs being left unresolved by the end of the season 1 finale.
The decision was met with a mixture of indifference and disappointment, but it's very clear that a lot of Star Wars fans - and some of the actors involved with the show - were surprised by this development.
The "official" reason for the show's cancellation was low/declining viewership, but many feel the intense backlash from a vocal minority may have factored into the decision. We may never know if this was the case, but Stenberg did release a social media video shortly after the news broke, revealing that she had been sent a barrage of racist and homophobic abuse.
Now, Turner-Smith has put Disney on blast for not doing more to defend her co-star.
“They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting f*cking dog-piled on the internet with racism and bullshit,” the actress tells Glamour Magazine. “It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair.”
“It would just be nice if the people that have all the money were showing their support and putting their feet down," she continued. "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.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor did share a video calling out racist fans after Moses Ingram was targeted for similar abuse online, but Disney has never officially spoken out. Some view this as "cowing down" to those responsible for the attacks, while others believe ignoring the trolls is the best course of action.
The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGraté and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.
Headland also directed the premiere episodes (Eps. 101 & 102). Directors Kogonada (Eps. 103 & 107), Alex Garcia Lopez (Eps. 104 & 105) and Hanelle Culpepper (Eps. 106 & 108) round out the directing duties on the series.
"I really wanted to tell a story about the Sith," Headland told EW in a recent interview. "That was kind of my dream Star Wars idea. But it felt like the time period to do that in would be something pre-Phantom Menace. That seemed to be the most interesting trajectory for the Sith: How did the Sith go from the Rule of Two and being quote-unquote 'extinct' to Palpatine coming into power without the Jedi knowing about it?"
Award-winning composer Michael Abels, known for his work on Get Out and Us, scored The Acolyte.
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