Not only is The Acolyte actor Jodie Turner-Smith generally unhappy about the Star Wars series’ swift cancellation, but she also appears to believe that a majority of the criticism leveled towards its widely-panned existence was based heavily, if not solely, in racism.
Turner-Smith, whose character of Mother Aniseya appeared in the series as both the leader of deuteragonists Mae and Osha’s resident witch coven and the twins’ ‘virgin birth’ mother, expressed her disappointment towards The Acolyte‘s reception during a recent interview with Glamour UK‘s Iana Murray.
Amidst a general discussion regarding her recent career moves, such as her time portraying the role of Gracie the Dragon Queen in the Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey and her current experience filming Showtime’s upcoming British spy thriller The Agency (itself a remake of the French series Le Bureau), the actress eventually turned to the topic of The Acolyte, to which she began by recalling how upon first meeting series lead Amandla Stenberg, the young woman gave her a full-blown essay regarding her own personal take on the ‘inner lives’ of the series’ characters.
“I’ve never worked with anybody who’s handed me an essay on their character,” said Turner-Smith. “The Virgo in me was just like, ‘Yass, I’m living for this!'”
However, her excitement would ultimately be short-lived, as having now broached the subject of her time in a galaxy far, far away, Turner-Smith would recall, “[Stenberg] put so much care and thought and love into that, and it’s disappointing to feel like your studio is not having your back in a very public-facing way.”
To this end, the actress then called on Disney 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.”
“It’s just not fair to not say anything,” she added. “It’s really unfair.”
“It would just be nice if the people that have all the money were showing their support and putting their feet down,” Turner-Smith further lamented. “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. I bet you it won’t, because people of colour, 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.”
She continued, “Opinions change. What’s in vogue changes. We’re gonna get there at some point, to that place where people stop having a stick up their arse about people of colour being a part of IPs that were created by white people. You know why? Because we’re never going to f–king stop participating.”
“We don’t get to fail upwards like a lot of white men,” she concluded. ” just feel that some people are allowed to grow and others have to be perfect, and if they’re not perfect – even when it’s great – people want to f–king tear it apart.”
