“The Boys” star Karen Fukuhara says an unknown man hit her in the head on Wednesday, and that she believes he targeted her because she is Asian.
Fukuhara, who plays Kimiko Miyashiro on the Amazon Prime Video comic-books series, told her Instagram followers that she is “physically fine” but is still in shock, and called for an end to the wave of anti-Asian violence across the country.
“Today I was struck in the head by a man. I’m physically fine,” she wrote, adding, “This s— needs to stop. Us women, Asians and the elderly need your help.”
“I rarely share about my private life but something happened today that I thought was important,” she added. “I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head. It came out of nowhere. We made no eye contact before, I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. It came to my surprise and my hat flew off. By the time I looked back, he was a few feet away from me (he must have kept walking after hitting me).”
Fukuhara, who also played Katana in 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” said she thought about “confronting” her assaulter but decided it “wasn’t worth the risk.” She said he then yelled at her and “eventually walked away.”
“I write this, because I’ve had conversations with multi-racial friends of mine that had no idea these hate crimes happen to everyday, regular people — people that they share meals with,” she wrote. “I felt it was important to raise awareness.”
She added that she’s lucky because he wasn’t armed and only hit her once. She’s now thinking of taking self-defense classes.
“Why is this something we as ‘victims’ have to think about?” Fukuhara asked. “What satisfaction are these perpetrators getting from hitting women, Asians, the elderly? They need to be held accountable. What can we do as a community to prevent these horrible crimes?”
Her “Boys” co-stars offered their support, with Jack Quaid writing, “Karen thank you for sharing your experience. I’m sorry that happened to you. Love you. Here if you need anything.”
Chace Crawford commented, “F this person!! Hope you’re ok this is awful,” while Laz Alonso said, “This pisses me off. Wish I was there….”
“X-Men Apocalypse” actress Olivia Munn added, “I’m so grateful you’re safe.”
Crimes against Asian Americans escalated during the COVID pandemic, with anti‐Asian hate crimes increasing 164% in the first quarter of 2021 over the same period in 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino.
Fukuhara had no further comment at this time, a rep for the actress told TheWrap.