Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Ewan McGregor Stands Behind Moses Ingram Following Her Claims Of Fan Racism: “If You’re Sending Her Bullying Messages, You’re No Star Wars Fan In My Mind”
Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor has voiced support for his co-star Moses Ingram’s amidst her recent claims that she has received “hundreds” of hateful messages from supposedly racist Star Wars fans.
McGregor weighed in on the controversy in a May 31st “personal message” shared by the official Star Wars Twitter account.
“This weekend, Star Wars fans made Obi-Wan Kenobi the most watched Disney Plus original series premiere of all time,” opened the longtime franchise actor. “And for that I would say a big thank you. And it just goes to show what this family can do when we all pool together.”
A personal message from Ewan McGregor. pic.twitter.com/rJSDmj663K
— Star Wars (@starwars) June 1, 2022
“However,” he continued, “it seems that some of the fanbase from this influential fanbase have decided to attack Moses Ingram online and send her the most horrendous, racist DMs, and I heard some of them this morning and it broke my heart.”
“Moses is a brilliant actor, she’s a brilliant woman, and she’s absolutely amazing in this series,” responded McGregor to the supposed DMs. “She brings so much to this series, she brings so much to this franchise, and it just sickened me to my stomach to hear this had been happening.”
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The actor then declared, “I just want to say, as the leading actor in the series, as the EP on the series, that we stand with Moses. We love Moses. And if you’re sending her bullying messages, you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind.”
“There’s no place for racism in this world,” he concluded. “And I totally stand with Moses.”
As noted above, McGregor recorded his message in response to Ingram’s recent claims that, after being preempted by Disney to perceive any and all backlash to her character’s role or place in the overall Star Wars story from fans as “racist online abuse”.
“It was something that Lucasfilm actually got in front of, and said, ‘This is a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen,” the actress told The Independent in an interview published on May 22nd, roughly a week ahead of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s series premiere. “But we are here to help you; you can let us know when it happens.’”
The Reva actress also noted that “Obi-Wan Kenobi” director Deborah Chow has been “putting the proper systems in place so I feel safe as we do the work” throughout production.
“Of course, there are always pockets of hate,” added Ingram. “But I have no problem with the block button.”
RELATED: Obi-Wan Kenobi Actress Moses Ingram Shares Screenshots Of “Abuse” She’s Received
On May 30th, Ingram herself would share a handful of supposedly abusive messages she had received from viewers.
“you’re days are numbered,” wrote one user.
Another pushed back against her claims that her series was going “to bring the most diversity I think we’ve seen in the galaxy”, stating, “You are not the first n—a in starwarss fool.”
“You suck loser,” said another individual. “You’re a diversity hire and you won’t be loved or remembered for this acting role.”
Ingram next pointed to a screenshot of YouTuber MechaRandom42’s thumbnail for her video covering the actress’ previous comments to The Independent, ostensibly taking issue with its title, “Diversity hire human shield! Operation get behind the darkies is real!”
It should be noted that this appears to be the similarly named joke operation featured in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut.
In a final message shared by Ingram – and arguably the only one featuring objectively racist rhetoric – a user taunted, “AYO KENOBI YOU AINT FINNA RUN FOREVER WHITE BOY’ ‘GET BACK HERE’ – Third Sister, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
“You have now been converted into the Saint George of Floydium of Star Wars, are you happy,” wrote the individual. “How the f–l does an alien know eubonics.”
Sharing a video message alongside these tweets, Ingram claimed, “Long story short. There are hundreds of those. Hundreds. And I also see those of you out there who put on a cape for me. And that really does mean the world to me because there is nothing anybody can do about this.”
“There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate,” she reiterated. “So I question what my purpose is in even being here in front of you saying this is happening. I don’t really know. I don’t really know. ”
Ingram continued, “But I think the thing that bothers me is that like, sort of this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself which no one has told me, but this feeling of like, ‘I just got to shut up and take it.’ You know I just got to grin and bear it. 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 that I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird,” she concluded.
RELATED: Star Wars Makes Bizarre Late Night Tweet About Racism And Obi-Wan Kenobi Actress Moses Ingram
Following said the actress’ publication of her Instagram story, the official Star Wars Twitter account took to Twitter in the late hours of May 30th to declare, “We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist.”
“There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist,” the account added in a follow-up tweet.
What do you make of McGregor’s response to Ingram’s claims of widespread racist backlash? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!
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