The Mandalorian's Emily Swallow, who played the Armorer in Season 1 of the Disney+ Star Wars series, shared her thoughts on the firing of Cara Dune actor Gina Carano.
"All I can say is that Gina, and working with her personally, what impressed me about her from the beginning is that she is so interested in other peoples' opinions, and is so welcoming of other peoples' opinions," Swallow said at Dragon Con. "She wants to have a genuine dialogue. She's just like that in her day-to-day life. On set, she's more curious about other people. She's very giving, she's very gracious."
As for the circumstances that led to Carano's firing, Swallow said, "I know so little about what happened. I experienced it like you did. I don't know anything about the inner workings of it. I can only speak about Gina being a lovely person, which she is."
"I am thoroughly baffled by a lot of what we're dealing with right now with cancel culture and I think that it's... oh man," she continued. "There's so many layers to it that are important to look at, but I think that the hatred that comes into it and when people start refusing to listen to the other side, no matter which side they're on, I think that that's really dangerous. One of the things that is so beautiful about our country is we have free speech. We can hear things that we don't like, and we can disagree, and that's fine."
In February, #FireGinaCarano began trending on Twitter after the actor shared a post from another social media account detailing how strong fascist influence in Europe made it easier for Nazis to persecute Jews by first making the rest of the world hate them. The post ended by positing, "How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?" Carano herself is an outspoken conservative, and her comparing the treatment of Republicans to Jews during the Holocaust drew ire from fans.
Shortly after, Lucasfilm issued a statement, saying, "Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable."
Swallow isn't the first Mandalorian actor to weigh in on Carano being ousted from the series. In March, Bill Burr -- who plays Migs Mayfeld -- said Carano "was an absolute sweetheart. Super nice fucking person... I don’t know. I think there is just too many channels. And then you gotta do sensational shit...I don’t know what the fuck it is. I’m on that fucking show. Now, I gotta watch what the fuck I say... 'Hey you made an ignorant comparison. (flushing sound) There goes your dream, right? I look at that and it’s like, 'Who the fuck stands up to that?'"
Season 3 of The Mandalorian has yet to receive a premiere date.
Source: Dragon Con, via The Direct