Ewan McGregor says he is 'sickened' by 'horrendous racist' messages sent to 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' costar Moses Ingram
- Ewan McGregor denounced the racial abuse sent to his "Obi-Wan Kenobi" costar, Moses Ingram.
- On Monday, Ingram posted a series of racist messages she has received.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi" star Ewan McGregor defended his costar, Moses Ingram, on social media after she received "horrendous" racial abuse.
In the new "Star Wars" Disney+ series, which premiered last week, Ingram plays Reva Sevander, who is hunting the titular character played by McGregor.
On Monday, Ingram posted a series of screenshots to an Instagram Story showing racist messages she's received on the platform in response to her role in the show.
Ingram said that she's received "hundreds" of abusive messages online, and added that there's "nothing anybody can do" to "stop this hate."
In response, the official "Star Wars" Instagram account shared a short video on Tuesday with a message from McGregor, who also serves as an executive producer on the series.
McGregor started the video by saying a "big thank you" to fans for supporting the show but also addressed the abusive messages.
"It seems that some of the fan base from this influential fan base has decided to attack Moses Ingram online and send her the most horrendous racist DMs, and I heard some of them this morning and it just broke my heart," McGregor said. "Moses is a brilliant actor. She's a brilliant woman, and she's absolutely amazing in this series. She brings so much to the series. She brings so much to the franchise and it just sickened me to my stomach to hear that this has been happening."
The Obi-Wan actor continued: "I just want to say as the leading actor in the series, as the executive producer in this series, that we stand with Moses. We love Moses, and if you're sending her bullying messages, you're no 'Star Wars' fan in my mind. There's no place for racism in this world and I totally stand with Moses."
The official Twitter for the "Star Wars" franchise and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" actor Kumail Nanjiani also responded on Twitter on Tuesday.
The "Star Wars" account tweeted: "There are more than 20 million sentient species in the 'Star Wars' galaxy, don't choose to be a racist."
Ingram isn't the first "Star Wars" actor to face racial abuse. Previous actors such as Kelly Marie Tran and John Boyega have spoken about the issue before.
Tran, who played Rose Tico in "The Last Jedi," wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in 2018 addressing the online harassment she suffered for months after the movie opened, causing her to delete her social media accounts.
"It wasn't their words, it's that I started to believe them," Tran said in the essay. "For months, I went down a spiral of self-hate, into the darkest recesses of my mind, places where I tore myself apart, where I put their words above my own self-worth."