For Kelly Marie Tran, the recent rise in anti-Asian sentiment in the United States strikes close to home.
The 32-year-old Star Wars actress and star of the new Disney film Raya and the Last Dragon, who is the California-born daughter of Vietnamese refugees, has spoken out in the past about being bullied over her race. In a new interview, she discusses her feelings about the increase of reported anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, which began last year amid the start of the coronavirus pandemic that originated in China.
“It’s been really, really difficult, I think, to feel so many feelings at once,” Tran said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, March 24. “It’s such a difficult time for the Asian-American community and I think it hits everyone different. So many of my friends have been talking about, ‘OK, what are the ways that we can productively help?’ and also recognizing that we all need to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves and our mental health at the same time.”
She continued, “I think for me, something that has been really strange about it, is that I’m here talking about Raya, this move that is celebrating this part of the world which very rarely gets celebrated. And having that dichotomy of celebrating this part of the world and then also acknowledging these horrible things that are happening at the same time has been a very wild experience. I really hope that this movie can give people a little bit of joy in the middle of this really tumultuous thing.”
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