Jodie Turner-Smith doesn’t think it’s fair that Disney gets to ignore the racism and bigotry that stars in its films and TV shows experience online.
“It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair,” the “Acolyte” star told Glamour UK while discussing Disney’s lack of response to the onslaught of racism that she and other talent have received. “They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting f–king dog-piled on the Internet with racism and bulls–t.”
The conversation came after Turner-Smith’s co-star Amandla Stenberg posted a video detailing said racism and prejudice, admitting it wasn’t a “huge shock.”
“I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg said at the time. “There has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced when it was still just a concept and no one had even seen it. That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us.”
Now that the “Star Wars” show has been canceled despite its ratings success, Turner-Smith says Disney’s silence on the matter is “disappointing.”
“Like your studio is not having your back in a very public-facing way,” the actress noted. “It would just be nice if the people that have all the money were showing their support and putting their feet down.”
“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,” Turner-Smith continued. “I bet you it won’t, because people of color, 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.”
“The Acolyte” is available to stream on Disney+.
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