Gina Carano calls “The Mandalorian” firing one of the most ‘unnecessary cancellations in Hollywood history'
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The actress was fired from the series following a string of controversial social media posts involving COVID-19 vaccines and her use of pronouns in her profile.
Three years after being fired from The Mandalorian, Gina Carano is opening up about her dismissal from the series and ongoing lawsuit against Lucasfilm and Disney.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress and ex-MMA fighter spoke about the “disrespect” and “shame” she felt in the wake of her termination. “I just laid down and cried and cried,” said Carano, who claims she learned of her firing when the company released a statement online. “I curled into a fetal position. It’s not that I didn’t think that something like that could happen. It was that I couldn’t imagine they would put out this horrendous statement about me after working with me — the most powerful entertainment company in the world saying that about me.”
The actress lost her role as Star Wars mercenary Cara Dune in February 2021, following a string of controversial social media posts.
Along with taking a stance against COVID-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic and implying that the 2020 presidential election was a result of “voter fraud” amid Donald Trump’s disproven claims of election-rigging, the actress shared memes that spread disinformation on both subjects. The situation came to a head after she reposted a meme that compared having different political opinions to being Jewish in Nazi Germany.
Defending the post, Carano now said that it “just made sense — don’t hate your neighbor. Before the Nazis were as powerful as they became, you had to make it OK to hate this person next to you. That’s how we get to dangerous places. And history does repeat itself.”
In the aftermath, she filed a lawsuit in California federal court alleging wrongful termination and discrimination, and asking for Lucasfilm to reinstate her in the role of Cara Dune.
Elon Musk is helping to fund Carano's suit. “I think it’s pretty incredible what he is doing,” she said of his support. “A lot of billionaires put their money into buying islands and building bunkers. Elon Musk is using his money to fight massive injustice battles.”
Lucasfilm/courtesy Everett
Gina Carano in 'The Mandalorian'Prior to her 2021 tweets, Carano courted controversy by mocking the use of pronouns on social media. Pushing back against the idea of sharing pronouns in her Twitter bio to show solidarity with the trans community, the actress instead added the words “boop/bop/beep.” She later removed this after a conversation with her Mandalorian costar Pedro Pascal, who explained the significance that pronouns in bios have for many people — but she maintains that mocking the trans community was never her intention.
“I’ve had male publicists with the same size feet as me and we run around in my shoes and try on my dresses,” she told the outlet. “I was just fed up. So I was like, ‘Fine, I’ll put something in my bio: ‘boop/bop/beep’ I thought it was cute, like R2-D2.”
Carano said the incident prompted Lucasfilm and Disney HR department to design her a “reeducation camp,” which included media training and a conversation with two transgender representatives from GLAAD. She was also asked to release an apology but said that after days of back-and-forth edits, Lucasfilm abandoned the effort.
“Boop/bop/beep? Seriously? This was the start of the end for me?” Carano said, reflecting on the controversy now. “A 20-year career, the blood, sweat and tears of fighting? I never compromised myself for a job. I never ended [up] in a bad situation where I did anything inappropriate. I had a clean and clear climb to where I got to and was going to just keep going. And boop/bop/beep was that harmful?”
The actress, now focused on “clearing my name,” continued: "You won’t find a perfect person in me, but you will find a person who was doing her absolute best under one of the most aggressive unnecessary cancellations in Hollywood history,” she said. “This has been one of the toughest growth spurts of my life and I don’t plan on wasting what I have learned.”
Prior to her termination, Carano appeared in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and was expected to star in its now-canceled spinoff series, Rangers of the New Republic.
EW has reached out to Disney and Lucasfilm for comment.
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