John Boyega Apologizes For Shady Comments About 'Last Jedi' Co-Star Kelly Marie Tran!

That’s how John Boyega is going to win. Not by shading the things he hates but by apologizing to the things he loves.

The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker star is facing some backlash online after making a comment which seemed very much like an oblique jab at his co-star, Kelly Marie Tran.

For those who didn’t follow the Dark Side of the response to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there was a small but annoyingly vocal segment of the fandom which turned extremely toxic. For some reason they picked out one actor to blame for their hatred of the penultimate saga film. And it just happened to be a young woman of color.

They harassed her ceaselessly, causing Kelly — who went from being a virtual unknown to acting in a Star Wars film — to nope out of social media completely.

OK, cut to Wednesday afternoon when John Boyega’s Variety interview was published.

Specifically in response to a question mentioning the Kelly controversy, John refers to “those who are not mentally strong” taking the social media response too seriously.

It really sounded to basically everyone who read it like he was calling Kelly out as “weak.”

Here’s the full quote, with Variety‘s question first for context:

V: There’s a sort of double edged sword there. You can get really great engagement. But then there’s what happened with Kelly [Marie Tran] about the small subset people who are very vocal and very negative, and having to navigate that.

JB: Being in this position, you just understand the masses, how the masses think, you know. Through social media, we get to engage, we get to have fun. But at the same time, for those who are not mentally strong, you are weak to believe in every single thing that you read. That’s, you know, it is what it is. I don’t know, for me anyway, when I see that [backlash], I’m like, well, that’s actually not true. But no, it is actually not true. So it’s kind of like [shrugs] it is what it is. But to engage, to connect with the fans who otherwise wouldn’t get a day to day experience, especially during things like the press tour, and behind the scenes stuff, is always good.

Yeah, that’s at least somewhat easy for him to say as his experience probably isn’t as overwhelmingly negative and full of trolls as poor Kelly’s.

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But after seeing how people reacted to his comments on social media, well, let’s just say he believed those things he was reading; he very quickly wrote a clarification/apology on Twitter, saying:

“In no way was I referring to Kelly when I made my comments although the interviewer mentioned her given the topic. I was really speaking from my own perspective throughout this franchise. Sometimes I’ve felt strong and sometimes I’ve felt weak. Badly worded though. I apologize.”

Hmm.

There’s a good lesson here. Even if you are talking about your own experience, it’s always good to keep in mind how those words reflect on those around you.

What do YOU think of FN-2187’s comments and apology?? Is the Force strong with him again? Or is he only a master of evil?

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[Image via ITV/WENN/Star Wars/YouTube.]