“Our stories are valid and we deserve to tell them in any way that we want to.”
Kelly Marie Tran
Kelly Marie Tran is making history, again!
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She’s voicing Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess in , which is scheduled to be released next year.
Instagram: @disneyraya
@disneyraya / Via Instagram: @disneyraya
She previously played Rose Tico in Star Wars, which made her the first woman of color to play a lead character in the franchise.
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Power of Women Summit
Speaking at ‘s Power of Women Summit , Kelly talked about the pressure that comes with playing such a historic character, which she doesn’t necessarily agree with.
Vanity Fair
“It should not feel so precious that there is something like this that exists in the world,” she said. “There should just be so many. Do you know what I mean?”
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“I feel like sometimes when you are in an underrepresented group of people and you get this opportunity, you sort of have to do all of these mental Olympics of being like, ‘Oh, I have to be extra grateful because it will never happen again.’ And that’s such an unfair pressure to put on yourself.”
Kelly continued making excellent points, acknowledging how grateful she is for the opportunity that a character like Raya represents, but also that such opportunities for BIPOC shouldn’t be such a rarity.
Handout / Getty Images
“It’s not fair to think that this is going to be the only time that this happens,” she said, explaining that she had a similar feeling when she was doing Star Wars.
“Our stories are valid and we deserve to tell them in any way that we want to, and we deserve to tell them repeatedly from different angles. And it shouldn’t be just this one thing that we’re so desperate to grasp on to.”
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I cannot stress enough just how RIGHT she is. Attention, studios: LISTEN TO KELLY MARIE TRAN. You can make more than one non-white movie per year!!!!!
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You can check out the whole panel right here for more thoughtful insights.
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The panel also features Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever), and Storm Reid (Euphoria).
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