Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico caused a bit of a disturbance in the Force amidst the back-and-forth of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi and J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker. When it came down to it, the actress’ role was small in the franchise, and many hoped for more from Rose Tico. Over a year after Tran was given just 76 seconds in the final Skywalker Saga film, the 32-year-old isn’t exactly gunning to reprise her Resistance fighter role.
Kelly Marie Tran just earned the ranks of Disney Princess in her new film Raya and the Last Dragon, which has the actress voicing the role of a brave warrior fighting for her land of Kumandra. When reminiscing about her time on Star Wars, the actress explained why returning to a galaxy far, far away may not feel right to her. As she put it:
I miss Rose. I maybe miss who I was when I played her. I feel like, sometimes, I don't know that I could play her now. I feel like I'm different.
Following the release of The Rise of Skywalker, which had Rose Tico on screen for less than two minutes in the two hour and 22 minute-long film, fans campaigned for the character to get her own spinoff on Disney+. Crazy Rich Asians’ director Jon M. Chu even shared interest in developing the series too. Whilst speaking about the film to IGN with fellow voice actress Cissy Jones, Kelly Marie Tran continued to candidly address why the Star Wars character isn’t the same to her anymore:
I think so many times in our lifetimes, we are constantly growing and learning and again, the realm of human experience is so limitless. You can be so many different people at one time, but when I think about Rose specifically and who I was then and how I was able to tap into certain parts of myself and I don't know if I could play her again. I miss parts of her.
Cissy Jones remarked that the character had a “beautiful, wide-eyed curiosity” about her, and spoke to how she was young enough to not be a “jaded” hero in the series. Kelly Marie Tran jumped in to say that she felt like that exact aspect of her character is something that she specifically misses, comparing herself to an old woman smoking a cigarette in the corner, reminiscing on “those days.”
It’s kind of a bummer that Kelly Marie Tran feels that way about Rose Tico so early in her career, but the role definitely forced her to grow and face both fame and Hollywood in a way that not many young actors are faced with so quickly. The actress famously decided to leave social media and focus on her mental health following some less than desired hate online about her Star Wars role. Her co-star Daisy Ridley did the same thing, recently saying that the communication tool is just “not” for her.
Although Kelly Marie Tran may not feel like Rose Tran is her path forward, she seems to have carved an exciting path for herself as Disney’s star in the critically acclaimed Raya and the Last Dragon, along with joining Disney+’s Monsters Inc spinoff, Monsters at Work. And we’d be 100 percent in for a jaded Rose Tico in a few years if she does change her mind.
