When asked what advice she would give to women entering the “Star Wars” fandom arena, Ridley didn’t mince words:
“The world is a crazy place. It’s important to tune out the stuff. Not just with ‘Star Wars,’ but with everything, you try and be in the moment and enjoy what it is because life moves quickly.”
That’s honestly pretty great advice for anyone who has a career in the public eye. There is a tremendous amount of noise out there as people assess your every action, especially when you’re a part of as big of a pop culture property as “Star Wars.” Sadly, the advice is especially applicable within the fandom itself, which has been truly heinous to members of the sequel trilogy’s cast, focusing the worst of their ire on Kelly Marie Tran, who portrayed Rose Tico in “The Last Jedi.”
The hatred tends to be directed toward women, especially women of color. The stars of new “Star Wars” shows shouldn’t have to publicly denounce a section of the fandom’s racist attacks, but that’s exactly what happened last year with “Obi-Wan Kenobi” when actor Moses Ingram was harassed on social media and her co-stars had to tell people to cut it out. Do these people not realize that they’re behaving like the Sith in this situation?