John Cho has said the bullying Kelly Marie Tran went through was “tremendously sad”.
In a PTI interview, John Cho said it was “tremendously sad” to read about the bullying Star Wars: The Last Jedi actress Kelly Marie Tran experienced.
Earlier this year, Tran deleted her Instagram posts after receiving “months of harassment” online. The 29-year-old actress had remained silent on the issue until last week, when she wrote a piece for The New York Times titled ‘I Won’t Be Marginalized by Online Harassment’.
“It wasn’t their words, it’s that I started to believe them,” Tran wrote.
Cho said he was emotional after reading Tran’s statement.
“When I learnt the bullying that Loan (Tran) was going through, I felt tremendously sad,” Cho said. “I find that people somehow tend to be meaner online. They tend to pick up fights that they would not face-to-face.”
However, Cho added that the support shown for Tran was tremendous.
“But it also galvanised a lot of support for her,” Cho said. “The only positive thing to come from this, if any, is that it brought this forceful statement from Kelly. I found it quite an emotional read and I think it is something that resonated around the world.”
Cho’s latest film Searching is currently in cinemas and is one of the five Asian films we’re recommending this month.
In related news, Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M Chu and star Henry Golding recently bought out a theatre to promote Searching.