For your consideration (FYC) requests are a dime for a dozen when Emmy nominations are near. Every show wants to increase its chances of being nominated. So they put everyone on their list, no matter if they’ve guest-starred for an episode or 2 minutes. And that’s the case for the Disney/Lucasfilm live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian. Pedro Pascal was a shoo-in for Lead Actor, and I can understand Giancarlo Esposito’s being listed under Supporting Actor. What I can’t understand is including Gina Carano.
For those who forgot and need a little refresher, Carano played Cara Dune in Disney+’s The Mandalorian. And even though her acting was sub-par, she was a breath of fresh air for the show. Plus, big buff lady kicking ass? I wasn’t going to say no to that! She was a fan favorite in no time and was winning hearts left and right, to the point where she was set to star in her own Star Wars spinoff series. Unfortunately, that all came to a screeching halt when she was fired for her social media posts.
These posts suggested widespread voter fraud had occurred during the 2020 Presidential Election, a claim that has been proven wrong, over and over again. Carano also discouraged mask-wearing, despite being smack dab in the middle of a pandemic and not being a medical professional to speak on such things. And her most inflammatory post, at least for me, is the one where she compared what conservatives are “going through” in the current political arena of the United States as akin to the struggle of Holocaust victims. Oh and don’t forget when she made fun of specifying pronouns and all its layers!
Carano then tried to gaslight us into believing that her statements were taken out of context and that she was being bullied for her conservative ways. It’s like she didn’t think that we would screenshot things or that we couldn’t understand the complexities of what she had said. Because we heard her, understood her, and still think that she was wrong to say what she did as if her words were gospel truth. They weren’t. Instead, they were an embarrassment to Disney+ and fans, the latter pushing for #FireGinaCarano.
Instead of apologizing for her statements, Carano doubled down and became an even bigger disappointment to those who thought she was a welcome addition to The Mandalorian, a.k.a. people like me. And it got to the point where Carano discovered that she had been fired over social media with Disney/Lucasfilm saying, “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Refresher over.
Now that we’re caught up, the question stands, “Who thought it was a good idea to put up Carano for an Emmy nomination consideration?” Right off the bat, I thought of contractual obligations. Maybe that’s the reason why she’s on the list with the likes of Pascal and Esposito. And maybe Lucasfilm is just getting it done and over with so they can move past Carano. Then there’s the cynical side of me that thinks Lucasfilm/Disney is testing the waters to see how people are feeling about Carano now that some time has passed.
Well newsflash, Lucasfilm, I still haven’t forgotten, and I don’t know anyone who has. She was a disappointment when she dropped those controversial statements and she continues to be a disappointment in 2021. And the only thing that is going to make us forget about what Carano has said or done is by recasting her character and moving on. Trust me, I won’t even blink an eye at the recasting. It’ll be like this new actor has been there from the start.
And again, I know this is just a FYC campaign and not an actual nomination. But the point stands that she shouldn’t be on this campaign at all. Even if there is some kind of contractual obligation at play here, there should really be some way around that, especially when the party in question has done something as ridiculous (and sometimes dangerous) as spreading voter fraud theories, offering dangerous COVID-19 advice when so many people were dying, making fun of specifying pronouns, and comparing conservative’s struggle to that of Holocaust victims.
Also, from where I’m standing, her FYC nomination feels like an endorsement, possibly the last thing Disney + or Lucasfilm want after the fanfare that was her firing. Instead, her name should be excluded as a way of setting an example and showing the world that dangerous lies will result in consequences, something many can’t understand and who sweep the behavior of someone like Carano under the rug of “cancel culture.”
(via CBR, image: Disney+)
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