Former ‘Star Wars’ actress Gina Carano is teaming up with Elon Musk and X to sue Disney and Lucasfilm after they trashed her name and fired her from ‘The Mandalorian.’ Gina joins Glenn to reveal how she got in contact with Musk and what her life was like after she lost her role as Cara Dune. She tells Glenn that Disney didn’t even have the courtesy to notify her first, but instead allowed mobs to go after her over false claims of ‘hate speech’: “[Disney] definitely put my life in danger.” Plus, she tells Glenn why she decided to take on Disney: “So many people have come before me and fought this battle and nobody was paying attention…it breaks my heart that they didn’t get justice.”
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I don't think I need to really do a long introduction. So I'm not going to. Actress, former MMA fighter, Gina Carano. How are you?
GINA: I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.
GLENN: You bet. I've got to tell you, I am so glad to see that you are standing up and fighting back against Disney and Lucasfilm for what happened to you. Can you just describe, quickly, that whole scene?
GINA: Well, quickly.
GLENN: I know. Sorry.
GINA: No. It's okay. I actually -- it was really interesting. For the longest time, for the last couple of years, I just -- you know, just distraught. Trying to rebuild my life. Running into all sorts of problems, and trying to, you know, re-create my career. And finally, you know, I was like, I had to just give it to God and say, all right. You know, you've got me in life. I'm going to keep going. And I have to let this go, and give it to you. And, you know, whatever justice I get, you know, I know you're working behind the scenes for me.
And then, it's almost as soon as I did that, I got an email from a lawyer, that was hired by Elon Musk and X to inquire about my case. And then I was just so excited, and I emailed him back, like immediately.
And, you know, we started going through all of the -- you know, I just educated them. And I sent them everything I have to date. And I have a lot more to send them. And they are wonderful. And they are just excited. And they couldn't believe -- they were kind of like dumbfounded about how this happened.
So that's the quick version.
GLENN: So you -- I mean, you've worked with everybody. Michael Douglas. Fassbender. Channing Tatum. Bill Paxton. Antonio Banderas. Robert De Niro. Ryan Reynolds.
Have you had any support from these people, or are they afraid to come out? How would you describe what you've -- your friend circle.
GINA: Well, yeah. I mean, well, that's not my friends. They're not my friends.
GLENN: Your coworkers.
GINA: They're incredible people that I've worked with.
You know, I've never had an issue with anybody. With anyone, whatsoever. You know, as far as actors go or a crew goes. Or for that matter, I did not have an issue on set, ever.
I get along with everybody. But, yes. To answer your question, there has been many people who I have worked with. And who I haven't worked with, that I have run into.
Not only just very well-known actors. But also very well-known producers. And actually people who are still working in Disney and Lucasfilm, actively, you know, have -- you know, they all have shown so much support. Everything that I've seen. Any of them.
And to be very honest, I've not had one person from this industry come up to me and say, you know, I deserved that. They're all saying the complete opposite.
So it's just been kind of mind bending that -- that Lucasfilm couldn't see that as well.
GLENN: When -- when they contacted you, I assume they contacted you with this. Or maybe they just said, oh, it's over for other reasons.
But when you found out that you were being cut out of everything. And your career was over, because of a tweet.
That was exactly the same, that your costar tweeted, except, toward the other side.
Did you point that -- I mean, you had to have gone, guys. Wait a minute. Hold it.
I mean --
GINA: Well, they didn't contact me. This is very interesting.
I think it just shows what the company was at the time, a couple years ago. They didn't even contact me to let me know they were letting me go. They didn't contact me to let me know that there was about to be paparazzi stalkers. And people waiting outside my house.
I found out all that just like everyone else did, over the internet.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
GINA: And it did. It was awful. You know, I've been trying to put on a very brave face for the last couple of years.
GLENN: It's hard.
GINA: I cannot begin to even describe. I couldn't leave my house for seven days. I was being talked. I was being harassed. They were coming up to my -- I had to keep all my blinds closed. And I had actually lost all hearing. I don't know -- it's a very interesting random thing. I lost all of the hearing. As soon as I was cancelled, my hearing got clogged. And I could only hear 5 percent.
GLENN: Was that kind of like -- this is a horrible name for it, but hysterical blindness, where you are in so much trauma, that --
GINA: It really felt like -- it really -- yeah, it really felt like that.
It felt like that, or either that, or just God put earmuffs on me.
So I really had to sit there in my head. And I really had to sit there in my head, and just go over things.
And it was quite. It was torturous, until I was finally just like, okay.
I just gave it to God. And I just, it's just -- it was just such an intense time.
And, you know, for them not to even warn me.
You know, I didn't live in a gated community. So I was out there.
And that wasn't -- you would think that somebody would have just call me and tell me, hey. Thank you for all your work and everything. And we're just no longer going to work with you.
And then they put out the statement about denigrating people off of their religious and cultural beliefs.
And I was like, this is -- I just -- it was just, at the worst time possible, they really kind of, you know -- they definitely put my life in danger, at that moment.
GLENN: So what do you hope happens with this lawsuit? I mean, I would love to see the discovery on all of the emails going back and forth, that will be nice.
GINA: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I hope that -- I hope that this makes a change. I hope that it's -- it makes a change. In this industry.
And it makes the change in people's hearts.
The post I got fired for originally. Or what they said I got fired for.
Was never supposed to be what they -- what the media and all the media twisted into.
It was supposed to be, you know, do not demonize your neighbor. You know, we need to look at each other as human beings. Because the internet is one thing. But when you get outside, and you get around people, there's so much love and there's so much, you know -- it's not the internet. The internet is false. It's a lot of people nephew hiding behind brave ideas and false accounts. And when you get to be around people, there is -- you know, we all -- you know, all read. We are all on this earth together. And so I hope that this the outcome of this case is just to make, you know, everybody kind of be -- truly, truly inclusive industry in Hollywood. And make it that much difficult to do what was happening to me, to happen to the next person.
GLENN: Yeah. You know, it's -- I don't think people understand that, you know, it's happening to people like you. And, you know, people all over in the country, who are in visible places.
And I don't think people are really understanding.
If they do it to people like you, why would they hesitate to do it to a nobody.
And that's -- that's the scariest thing.
Is they're not coming after the nobodies. Alone.
They're coming after names like Elon Musk. Who I think they're trying to do the same thing to.
GINA: Oh, yeah. Yeah. When they try to smear him as anti-Semitic. I was like, that's exactly what they did to me. They try to smear you as all these key words. Racist, anti-Semitic, transphobe.
And, you know, it's just -- it's really, they're just trying to squash anybody who has the ability to reach people, to --
GLENN: To communicate.
GINA: Yeah. To tell them -- let's communicate. Let's think critically. Let's not just listen to what the news is telling us. And let's -- let's communicate with each other. Because we have to.
Because everything is owned now by people who want to grab more control.
GLENN: It's really crazy. I've never seen, especially with Disney.
I've never seen such a wrecking ball taken to their, you know, own corporation.
Like Disney has taken a wrecking ball to everything they own and everything that they touch. This is just horrible.
GINA: It's truly a shame, because we just grew up with Disney. And it doesn't seem like it would be that hard of a fix.
You know, it doesn't seem like, hey. You know what, my stuff here.
They're so good at telling everybody how to apologize and get on their knees and say sorry. It's like, you know, lead by example in this case. It wouldn't be hard to be like, to look at my case and be like, hey. You know what, we belong there.
Let's make it right. And, you know -- and then let's start reaching out to -- you know, really includes this -- like all -- all people. It doesn't mean that they have to follow any kind of political, you know, life. They could just really include and appreciate the fan base that they had, that has just been completely betrayed by them. So I don't understand in those meetings, how it's just not like, you know what, we did wrong. Let's face up to it.
Let's do something right here. And let's get our -- like our conservative viewers back.
It's just a no-brainer.
GLENN: Right. I don't know if they could, at this point.
Once you violated my family. I mean, beyond what they did to you. They -- you know, they're trying to teach my children principles, that I don't agree with at all.
And they lost that trust. That parents have. Oh, it's Disney. It's safe.
It's not safe. And that's going to take them a long time to recover that. And a good step forward, would be to -- to -- to correct this, with you and others that they have wronged.
So, you know, when this happened to you --
GINA: But nothing is impossible, you know.
GLENN: I know.
GINA: If they keep going down this route, they will just be considered evil. You know, I have a massive fall to, you know, rock, to push back a mountain. To get back a career. But I'm not looking at that, saying, okay. I'm at the bottom again, I'm not going to do it.
You know, we have to constantly rebuild ourselves, and so do companies.
So if they started now, they could start pushing that rock back up, instead of just tumbling -- it's just tumbling down the hill.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
Well, you are going to be -- you're going to be fine, in the end.
Especially since -- you know, when this happened, we weren't really ready as conservatives. And I don't want a bunch of conservative films. Or, you know, films about -- I just want good films. You know what I mean?
GINA: Yeah.
GLENN: And can we have them say decent things about society. And try to help us be better people.
GINA: Exactly.
GLENN: But if you look at the films now, Angel is really I think leading the way on this.
If you see some of the stuff that's coming. And I think we're right on the cusp. I started TheBlaze, you know, before -- before Amazon ask HBO were online.
We were doing digital streaming at TheBlaze. And it was a nightmare. Now, 12 years later, things are happening, to where, there is a community.
You give it another five years, and we're not going to have worry about Hollywood.
GINA: You know, and it really just breaks your heart. You know, I feel like so many people have come before me, and fought this battle. And nobody was paying attention. So I really am honored to be in a position where people are paying attention right now.
And to give respect to those people that came before me.
Those actors. And everyone trying to break down the barriers for so long.
You know, it breaks my heart, that they didn't get I couldn't wait.
And so, you know, yeah. I'm -- I feel pretty fortunate, you know, to be in the situation, to help with that.
Because, yes. In five years, it's going to be even better. And I'm excited to have just been at the beginning of this.
Just how I was at the beginning of women's mixed martial arts.
You know, part of breaking ground here. And so I really hope this case is -- I hope, I hope people pay attention to it. And blow it out of the water.
And just make sure, that we will make it easier for the next generation, and the people -- the younger people behind me.
GLENN: I have such great respect for you. Thank you so much for coming on. You're welcome here, any time. Best of luck to you.
You bet. You bet.
GINA: Thank you so much, Glenn.