The Empire Strikes Back: Disney CEO says Mandalorian star Gina Carano was fired for ‘breaching values that are universal’ after she tweeted post comparing cancel culture to the Holocaust
- Bob Chapek tacitly defended Gina Carano’s firing during Disney’s annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday
- Chapker argued Disney isn’t ‘left-leaning or right-leaning,’ but stands for ‘universal values’ of respect, decency, integrity and inclusion
- Carano, 38, was fired by Lucasfilm from The Mandalorian over social media post that likened Holocaust to US political climate
- Carano claimed her co-star Pedro Pascal got away with comparing US ICE detention centers to Nazi concentration camps because he is a liberal
Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek on Tuesday tacitly defended the firing of The Mandalorian star Gina Carano, suggesting that she was let go not because of her conservative views, but for voicing opinions that run counter the company’s ‘universal’ values.
Chapek also denied that the decision was based on politics and rejected claims the entertainment juggernaut is ‘left-leaning or right-leaning’.
During Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, Chapek was asked about Carano’s firing last month for comparing the experience of Jews during the Holocaust to the US political climate.
A caller asked Chapek during the Q & A portion of the meeting whether Carano, 38, was singled out for being outspoken about her conservative beliefs, as opposed to her left-leaning co-star Pedro Pascal, who kept his job after comparing ICE detention centers to Nazi concentration camps.
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Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek on Tuesday defended the firing of The Mandalorian star Gina Carano. He suggested the actress has run afoul of the company’s ‘universal values’
The shareholder also asked the CEO whether the company had a ‘black list,’ reported Deadline.
Chapek, who did not mention Carano by name, responded that he does not see the $200billion dollar company as ‘left-leaning or right-leaning,’ and said that Disney stands ‘for values that are universal: Values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity and values of inclusion.’
He continued: ‘and we seek to have the content that we make reflective of the rich diversity of the world we live in. And I think that’s a world we should all live in harmony and peace.’
Carano, a former MMA fighter who played the recurring character Cara Dune on the popular Disney + show, was fired last month for the post.
Lucasfilm, which produced The Mandalorian, released a statement that called out Carano for ‘denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities’ and slammed her posts as ‘abhorrent and unacceptable.’
The former MMA fighter (left) was booted off the Disney + show after sharing a social media post (right) that likened the experience of Jews during the Holocaust to the US political climate
Carano came under fire after she posted that ‘Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…. even by children.’
She continued to say, ‘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?”
Carano deleted the post but it was widely shared online and spurred the #FireGinaCarano hashtag to trend.
Her supporters were quick to point out that Pascal, who plays the title character on the show, back in 2018 shared an image to his Twitter account comparing US ICE detention centers to Nazi concentration camps.
Carano said in an interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro that Pascal had been able to get away with such an act because he was a liberal, while she was punished because she was conservative.
Carano, who played Cara Dune on the show (pictured), said her co-star Pedro Pascal (pictured left as the Mandalorian) was able to get away with comparing US ICE detention centers to Nazi concentration camps because he is a liberal
‘They’d been all over me and they’d been watching me like a hawk,’ Carano said of the studio executives. ‘And I’m watching other people on the same production and they can say everything they want, and that’s where I had a problem.’
Carano insisted that she was not the only one who felt ‘bullied’ on The Mandalorian set for their political beliefs, and claimed others who held conservative views were reluctant to speak out.
‘I’m not the only one that’s ever been bullied by this company, and I know that so deeply,’ she told Shapiro.
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