Naomi Ackie deleted her Instagram before the news of her ‘Star Wars’ casting came out upon advice.
“I had heard that anyone of color would get wrapped up in some racist sh*t,” the actress referred to the negative backlash John Boyega got after his 2017 casting. “I didn’t want to have a place for them to come with their comments.”
Ackie didn’t face the resistance she feared and eventually came back to the platform with Disney’s encouragement and support. She added, “They did some sort of magic thing where I instantly got the checkmark [verification] and all these followers, and then ‘Star Wars’ came out, and it was fine and I sat with that for a bit. But then I eventually found myself scrolling too much, comparing myself to other people and becoming jealous, sad, and depressed.”
“I started putting stuff on my page that was attention-seeking,” she added. “Trying to be funny on my Insta stories, or trying to be hot, trying to be a thirst trap from my f*cking house share that I lived in with three other guys. It was like, what the f*ck, this is not working at all and I don’t feel good about it. I eventually realized it was time to get rid of it properly.”
Naomi plays Jannah in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,’ and she and Boyega weren’t the only ones facing racism from their ‘Star Wars’ roles. After the release of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi,’ Moses Ingram, who played Inquisitor Reva, received many hateful messages and comments on Instagram.
“I think the thing that bothers me is that like, sort of this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself,” she replied to the backlash on Instagram. “This feeling that no one has told me, but like I just got to shut up and take it. I just got to bury it.”
She added, “And I’m not built like that. So I really just wanted to come on, I think and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”
Star Wars needs to address the ongoing harassment faced by actors like Boyega, and Ingram. Despite sharing a video of Ewan McGregor speaking against racism in 2022, the problem persists.
