EXCLUSIVE: Gina Carano will open up about being let go from The Mandalorian in a sit-down interview with The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, which we can preview here on Deadline.
The interview, due to run Sunday on The Ben Shapiro Show, is Carano’s first on-camera sit-down since she was booted from the hit Disney+ Lucasfilm series last week for controversial social media posts.
“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 actress will tell Shapiro with whom she has a new movie deal. “I’m not the only one that’s ever been bullied by this company, and I know that so deeply,” she will claim.
She adds: “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.”
Carano, who played bounty hunter Cara Dune in the first two seasons of the show, will explain how she knew the writing was on the wall before her recent ouster.
“You know how boxers head-hunt sometimes and forget to go for the body? I feel like Disney or Lucasfilm or whoever it is, just certain people at that company…I feel like I’ve been being head-hunted (…) and you can feel it. 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. 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?”
Ultimately, Carano says she found that she wouldn’t be back on the series in the same way most the world did: via social media.
“How I found out 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.”
But she also says she received an email by accident from a Disney staffer following the social media reaction to her posts.
“They accidentally sent me an email, which was very enlightening, so I knew. I knew they were paying attention. I know there were some people who went to bat for me, but I know that they didn’t win out at the end.”
Carano goes on to agree with conservative commentator Shapiro that she believes there are double-standards at play at the studio depending on one’s politics. “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. I had a problem because I wasn’t going along with the narrative… “
Carano says she didn’t want to walk back comments she has made or stop speaking her mind on social media.
“I 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. 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. 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.’ “
She tells Shapiro at another point: “When you called, my body is still shaking. It’s devastating, but the thought of this happening to anybody else, especially to somebody who could not handle this the way I can, no, they don’t get to do that. They don’t get to make people feel like that (….) and if I buckle, it’ll make it okay for these companies, who have a history of lying, to be lying and to do this to other people, and they’ve done it to other people, and I’m not going down without a fight.”
Carano’s controversial social media posts, described by Lucasfilm as “abhorrent,” also saw her ditched by her agency UTA. The former MMA star and Deadpool actress raised hell by sharing a TikTok post comparing the current divided political climate in the U.S. to Nazi Germany.
“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. 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,” she wrote.
Another photo on Carano’s Instagram story featured a person with several masks covering their face and head with the caption: “Meanwhile in California.”
Both posts were scrubbed from the actress’s Instagram, but others picked them up and reposted. The actress has previously courted controversy for posts about election fraud and gender pronouns.
It’s not clear whether she has signed an NDA with Disney, which is common on major film and TV franchises. We reached out to the studio for comment.