Simon Pegg Tells Angry Star Wars Fans 'It's Just a Fucking Film'

In June, Kelly Marie Tran, star of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, reportedly deleted all her Instagram photos after facing months of harassment from Star Wars fans. Her co-star Simon Pegg has some wise words for those fans.

Tran, the first woman of color to have a lead role in the franchise, had been a frequent target of racist and sexist comments from fans upset about her casting. Pegg said in a recent video interview with Now This, “I feel sorry for Kelly Marie Tran. Because she was just in a film—a fucking film, that’s all it is. None of it matters, none of it.”

Before I go on, I should point out that Pegg also admitted he was “one of those people,” meaning one of those super-fans personally offended by the introduction of new characters into the Star Wars movies. Reflecting on his criticism of Jar-Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, Pegg said, “I feel so ashamed that there was actually a victim, a human victim in that.”

Pegg is referring to Ahmed Best, who voiced and stood-in for Jar-Jar Binks on the set of The Phantom Menace and who, earlier this month, admitted that he contemplated suicide after that the criticism of his character 20 years ago.

Pegg’s apology, if nothing else, shows that the level of harassment new stars received after the premiere of The Last Jedi is not a bug, but a feature of the Star Wars fandom. “There’s no diplomacy in that. There’s no empathy,” Pegg added, which is a nice way to state the obvious.