Gina Carano, the conservative actress who was fired from the hit series The Mandalorian for comparing the political climate to the Nazi era, claims her former bosses at Lucasfilm and Disney were ‘watching her like a hawk’ before her ouster.
‘I’ve been through so much, and I’ve seen so much now, clearly, of the bullying that’s been taking place, and I saw it before,’ the former mixed martial artist tells Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire in an interview set to air on Sunday.
DailyMail.com has sought comment from both Lucasfilm and Disney.
An excerpt of the interview was published on Friday by Deadline.
In it, Carano tells Shapiro: ‘I’m not the only one that’s ever been bullied by this company, and I know that so deeply.’
She added: ‘I could share a story which would turn things around in the media but I can’t because it would sell out a friend…Everyone is afraid of losing their job.’
Gina Carano, 38, the former mixed martial artist and actress who was fired from her role on Disney+’s The Mandalorian for a controversial post, said that she and others were victims of ‘bullying’ by Disney and Lucasfilm. Carano is seen above during an interview with The Daily Wire that will stream on Sunday
Carano played Cara Dune for two seasons on the hit Star Wars series before she was fired earlier this month
She was fired after posting an item on Instagram in which she compares the political climate in America to Nazi Germany
Carano, the 38-year-old actress who played Cara Dune in the first two seasons of the streaming hit series on Disney+, was fired last week after igniting an uproar on social media over an Instagram post invoking the Holocaust.
The conservative actress and former MMA fighter was fired by Disney after she posted on Instagram Stories that ‘Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…. even by children.’
The post continued: ‘Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews.
‘How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?’
A spokesperson for Lucasfilm said in a statement that Carano was no longer employed by the production company with ‘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,’ the statement read.
Also Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that toy manufacturer Hasbro has halted production of her Cara Dune action figure
Carano deleted the post, but it was screenshot and shared on Twitter, where it went viral, prompting a campaign calling on Disney to fire her.
Talent agency UTA has also dropped Carano as a client following the controversy, according to Variety.
Also Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that toy manufacturer Hasbro has halted production of her Cara Dune action figure.
Carano’s firing also sparked outrage – this time from conservatives who claim that mainstream media companies like Disney were not allowing its stars to air views that ran contrary to liberal thinking.
Many of Carano’s supporters online pointed out that her co-star on The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal, once used his social media account to compare ICE detention centers to Nazi concentration camps.
Cancel Disney+ began to trend on Twitter shortly after Carano’s firing with many pointing to Pascal’s comments as evidence of the company’s hypocrisy when dealing with conservative stars.
Days after her firing, she confirmed her plan to star in a new film in collaboration with The Daily Wire, the right-leaning news and opinion website founded by Shapiro.
Carano told Shapiro that she felt she was being ‘head-hunted’ by executives at Disney and Lucasfilm.
‘Just a couple of weeks ago, Lucasfilm asked an artist that they employ to erase my character and put a different character in place, and he proudly announces this on Twitter, and erases my character and puts another character in place,’ she said.
‘All the fans of Cara Dune were just outraged. They were like “Why didn’t you add the character? Why did you have to take off the character? Is there something wrong? Is Gina getting fired?”’
Carano told Shapiro that nobody at Disney or Lucasfilm spoke with her personal to inform her that she would not be returning to the hit streaming series.
Disney has been accused of double standards for firing Carano after it emerged Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal compared ICE administration centers to Nazi concentration camps
In 2018 Pascal shared these two images. He wrote: ‘#ThisisAmerica’
‘How I found out [that I was fired] was that I looked on the internet, and you know, you check your Twitter and I’m trending and the “fire Gina Carano” hashtag worked,’ she said.
Carano said that she was accidentally sent an email by a Disney employee. She said the email revealed that there were those in the company who ‘went to bat for me’ but ‘they didn’t win out at the end.’
She said she was being monitored for her social media posts, which were often opinionated and political in nature, even while her more liberal co-stars were free to express their viewpoints without fear of being punished.
‘They’ve been all over me and they’ve been watching me like a hawk, and I’m watching people on the same production and they can say everything they want, and that’s where I had a problem,’ she said.
‘I had a problem because I wasn’t going along with the narrative.’
Carano said that she was ‘prepared at any point to be let go, because I’ve seen this happen to so many people.’
‘I’ve seen the looks on their faces,’ she said.
‘I’ve seen the bullying that takes place, and so when this started, they point their guns at you, and you know it’s only a matter of time.’
She added: ‘I’ve seen it happen to so many people, and I just thought to myself (…) “you’re coming for me, I know you are.”
‘They’re making it very obvious through their employees who were coming for me, and so I was like, “I’m going to go down swinging and I’m going to stay true to myself”.’