The Walt Disney Company is seen by many as the strongest company in the entertainment industry, but that hasn’t stopped Gina Carano from taking it on. The actress who had previously been part of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian is suing the company over her firing, and she’s not mincing words when discussing the situation. While she admits to some embarrassment over the lawsuit, she has strong words for Disney CEO Bob Iger and says Disney instructs people how to apologize during situations like hers.
On the same day that Disney publicly responded to Gina Carano’s lawsuit, an interview with the former Mandalorian actor on the Sage Steele podcast went live. When speaking about the lawsuit, Carano admitted that she is a little embarrassed by the fact that it exists, because in her mind her issues could have been resolved another way, and the lawsuit was a last resort. She said…
I feel like it’s so embarrassing in a way. Because it’s like, ‘We couldn’t figure it out in a respectful manner.’ That we had to get somebody else involved. And that sucks because it didn’t have to be that way. The right thing could have just been done and the right things could have just been said as mature adults.
In February 2021 Lucasfilm cut tiles with Gina Carano following a series of controversial social media posts from the actress. Carano was accused of making transphobic statements as well as denigrating Jews and making light of the Holocaust in a variety of posts on social media. Carano has denied that her posts were meant to be taken that way.
The actress clearly feels that she has been wronged. Her lawsuit asks that the court force Lucasfilm to rehire her The Mandalorian, a somewhat surprising ask considering the clear animus she holds toward the company. The lawsuit is being funded by Elon Musk’s X, as the owner of the former Twitter site has offered to fund lawsuits to defend people that believe they were punished for statements made on Twitter.
Carano really seems to feel that, if she could only speak with the right people, this whole issue could be dealt with. She claims her specific case is unique, and seems to feel Disney is not handling it appropriately. The Deadpool actress continued...
When you have to get lawyers involved. I mean sometimes I just kind of want to sit down with them. I want to sit down with Bob Iger and be like, ‘What is the problem here?’ Did you read my story? Do you understand what’s going on? Do you understand this individual case? And do we understand what happened in the last four years that was completely brutal?
Carano has previously claimed Disney has bullied her and says here that the company is trying to “crush” her for “asking the right questions.” Though she doesn’t state exactly what those questions are. She feels Disney is making the wrong business decision by treating her this way, saying…
Can you imagine if they did the right thing in my case how differently their business would start to look? They’re not gonna do that. They’re gonna give me hell, and I know that.
While Carano feels she’s being treated unfairly by Disney, Disney doesn’t seem to feel the same way. The company has filed a motion to dismiss Carano’s lawsuit, claiming the company was perfectly within its rights to dismiss her for her public posts. We also know that Disney had previously asked Carano to simply apologize for the posts, even giving her a statement to post as her apology. Carano reiterates here that she was told how to apologize, but she did not do so, saying…
They’re like the professionals. They tell everybody exactly how to apologize. Like, they should know how by now, maybe set the example.
Carano has admitted it's been difficult to find work since her public firing. How things may change following this lawsuit remains to be seen.
