In a new puff piece aimed at blaming the fans for the major failure of The Acolyte, Jodie Turner-Smith and Glamour Magazine, similar to what Amandla Stenberg spouted off in her video, state the cast were attacked.
Amandla Stenberg blamed fans for the cancellation of The Acolyte, stating she wasn’t shocked. “For those who aren’t aware, there has been a rampage of vitriol that we’ve faced since the show was even announced, when it was still just a concept that no one had even seen,” she said. She went on to place blame on those she believes were responsible for the negative reaction, citing “a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudiced hatred, and hateful language towards us.”
What did Glamour mag say?
Glamour mag continued the spin, adding to the narrative, “The show was unceremoniously cancelled, allegedly due to low ratings – but in the weeks leading up to its season finale, the cast faced relentless torrents of racist abuse online from so-called fans who couldn’t handle a Black actor leading a Star Wars series.”
The article also points out what Stenberg said further noting: “It’s an infuriating cycle: actors of colour are cast in Star Wars projects and are immediately made vulnerable to vicious bigotry.”
What’s also interesting is that the article points out John Boyega has been outspoken about his experience with racism. The article forgets to mention Disney wiped Boyega from the Star Wars posters released in China.
What did Jodie Turner-Smith say?
Jodie Turner-Smith played the leader of the witches in The Acolyte. She also blasts Disney for their lack of response.
“They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting fucking dog-piled on the internet with racism and bullshit,” Jodie said in regards to Disney’s lack of response to The Acolyte’s reception. “It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair.”
Turner-Smith and Glamour must have also forgotten that Disney actually did do just that in regards to alleged racism surrounding Moses Ingram’s character in Obi-Wan.
There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.
— Star Wars (@starwars) May 31, 2022
“It would just be nice if the people that have all the money” – whether that be Disney or any studio – “were showing their support and putting their feet down,” Turner-Smith continued. “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.
“Opinions change. What’s in vogue changes,” she added “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?” she asks. “Because we’re never going to fucking stop participating.”
Where are the racist Star Wars fans?
So following reading the article and interview, I went to Jodie Turner-Smith’s Instagram page and expected to find thousands of posts with relentless torrents of racist abuse.
What I found was just the opposite. I couldn’t find a single racist comment or even a negative one. It’s possible her PR team scrubbed the negative remarks, or perhaps the so-called racist comments represent a small minority, which I believe is more likely. In fact, all the comments I found were glowing, with fans even suggesting Jodie Turner-Smith should play Storm in the MCU and that they loved her.
Jodie Turner-Smith just called 80% of The Mandalorian fans racist. LMAO. pic.twitter.com/EhHovEMjDd
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) October 6, 2024
I can't find one negative comment on her Instagram either when she posted the trailer. What a FN joke. pic.twitter.com/L7rxJslmYq
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) October 6, 2024
Another post where fans say nothing but good things about Jodie Turner-Smith pic.twitter.com/evQWlj9S4x
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) October 6, 2024
Where's the "relentless torrents of racist abuse" Jodie Turner Smith faced? @glamourmag @ianamurray??? pic.twitter.com/xfsNVGy5Tv
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) October 6, 2024
Blame the fans
It’s something we’ve seen time and time again from the clueless people running Hollywood: they blame the fans for their failures instead of placing the blame where it belongs—on themselves (Variety also just put out a huge shill piece).
So if something is bad—and make no mistake, The Acolyte is bad—fans are labeled as racist simply because they don’t like it? Do they realize something like 75% of fans that watched The Mandalorian didn’t bother tuning in for The Acolyte? Must be racism.
What is really going on?
I think what is really going on is that these types of shill articles and comments from the actors are meant to save face. It’s an attempt to convince the studio that the reason for said failure isn’t on them: “Well, we did a good job but the fans are racists. We need to change them.” Instead of: “Yeah, we fucked it all up. Let’s fix it.”
At the same time, there are also those who want to validate their existence by blaming the fans instead of accepting the blame. How’s that working out?
