Kelly Marie Tran Talks About Supportive Star Wars Fans

Star Wars has become one of the most popular film franchises over the last four decades, spawning one of the most impassioned fanbases in the world.

Newcomer Kelly Marie Tran spoke with me about her experience ahead of her debut in Star Wars: The Last Jedi when asked if she’s dealt with any crazy, diehard fans.

“I wouldn’t say crazy, I would more say supportive,” said Tran. “Just the fact that people- I mean I’ve never been recognized on the street or at the gym or in the grocery store at all, but when I come to events like this with the rest of the cast, people know that I’m associated with this thing that they love so much.”

Tran plays Rose Tico in the new movie, who is an engineer for the Resistance. She gets caught up in an adventure with Finn, and both characters end up going undercover to infiltrate the First Order.

And that’s most of what we know about the character, who has only been seen in trailers thus far. But that hasn’t stopped fans from backing Tran.

“The amount of support that I’ve gotten from people, even though they haven’t seen me do anything, it means a lot and it makes me emotional thinking about it,” Tran said. “I don’t know that I’m deserving of that sort of support right away. And Mark Hamill and I have kind of talked about that and just how incredible it is to have people love something so much and then to be a part of it. I can’t even describe it.”

The actor is not only new to the Star Wars franchise as an actor — she only watched the films after she was cast in the role.

Tran told me her favorite film was The Empire Strikes Back and spoke about why she loved the films after watching them for the first time.

“It was incredible… just seeing these films and really thinking about the time in history that they came out, and how incredibly groundbreaking they were, and seeing them today and seeing just how much they hold up, and how they could have done those sort of effects, and how practical a lot of those elements of those films were. It’s hard.

“I mean, I don’t know how you could not respect or love the characters and what Star Wars is and was and will always be, hopefully. I think that this film is also groundbreaking and I hope that people think that when the see it.”

Fans will finally get to see Tran’s debut in the galaxy far, far away when Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres in theaters on December 15.