In the closing months of 2018, Gina Carano, a trailblazer in mixed martial arts who made a seamless transition to acting with her role in Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 movie “Haywire,” found herself mesmerized by the stars. These weren’t real stars, but rather digital replicas displayed on a vast domed screen, showcasing a revolutionary new visual effects technology by Industrial Light & Magic called the Volume. At that time, Carano was living in Hermosa Beach, a mere 15-minute drive from Manhattan Beach Studios. There, she was deeply involved in a highly confidential sci-fi endeavor, tentatively titled Project Huckleberry. The Volume’s immersive experience made her feel as though she was light-years away from home.
“I absolutely adored vanishing into this peculiar universe filled with spacecraft, galaxies, and extraterrestrial beings,” Carano shared with me, nestled in a suite at The Beverly Hills Hotel. She was draped in a light shawl, sitting barefoot on a sofa, presenting a much more reserved demeanor than one might expect from her dynamic presence both on screen and online. As we spoke, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” her proclaimed favorite film, played silently on a television in the background, accompanied by the sound of a winter rainstorm against the window. “The camaraderie with everyone on set was incredible,” she continued. “From the directors and actors to the sound department, we all got along wonderfully. It was truly remarkable.”
Project Huckleberry would later be unveiled as “The Mandalorian,” premiering as the flagship show on Disney’s new streaming platform, Disney+, on November 12, 2019. This “Star Wars” series, created by writer-director Jon Favreau, quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Among its standout characters were the adorable animatronic alien Grogu, affectionately known as “Baby Yoda,” and Carano’s own character, Cara Dune, a mercenary hailing from Princess Leia’s destroyed home planet of Alderaan.
However, a little over a year after her adventures in distant galaxies began, Carano’s journey came to an abrupt halt. The beginning of the end was marked by her frequent and controversial use of social media. Carano, known for her forthright social media presence and right-libertarian views (despite her reluctance to label her political stance), found herself at odds with Disney’s corporate culture. Her posts on contentious issues such as COVID-19 vaccines and mask mandates (she opposed both and was staunchly anti-vaccine), her stance on Black Lives Matter and transgender rights (refusing to yield to demands to declare her pronouns or support activist hashtags), and her comments on the 2020 presidential election results (echoing unfounded claims of election fraud) sparked widespread controversy.
For a time, it seemed as though the storm had passed. Carano even received a call from Favreau hinting at a significant change in her career with the introduction of her own “Mandalorian” spinoff, “Rangers of the New Republic.” However, Favreau, citing an ongoing lawsuit, declined to comment further. Despite this, Carano remained on precarious ground at a company that prioritized liberal values and inclusivity, especially during a period of heightened tension over identity politics. Feeling singled out and harassed by both the public and her colleagues, Carano’s response was to fight back, as she had always done in her fighting career. The tipping point came with a meme she shared on Instagram Stories and Twitter’s Fleets on February 10, 2021. The meme depicted a terrified Jewish woman being chased by a boy with a bat during the Holocaust, accompanied by a caption questioning how this was different from hating someone for their political beliefs. This post was widely shared, igniting a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #FireGinaCarano.
And so, she was fired. However, Carano was not informed directly by her employers; instead, she learned of her termination online, along with the rest of the world. A statement from a Lucasfilm spokesperson declared, “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Her social media posts, which denigrate people based on their cultural and religious identities, are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Following this, she was dropped by her agency, UTA, and her Hollywood law firm, Ziffren Brittenham, effectively ending her career in Hollywood.
Devastated, Carano recalls, “I just lay there, crying. I curled up and couldn’t believe it. Not that I never thought something like this could happen, but I couldn’t fathom that they would release such a terrible statement about me after all our time working together. It was the most powerful entertainment company in the world saying this about me.” In response, Carano sold her Hermosa Beach home and purchased an RV, embarking on a three-week journey across the country to Nashville. There, she met with The Daily Wire, the right-wing media company co-founded by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing in 2015. They offered her a role in and the opportunity to produce a Western directed by Michael Polish titled “Terror on the Prairie,” which premiered on The Daily Wire website on June 14, 2022. Despite online mockery over the film’s reported earnings of only $804 — a figure mistakenly attributed to a single theatrical screening where admission was not charged — Carano clarified that the film was always intended for direct distribution to Daily Wire subscribers.
This marked the last Hollywood had heard of Carano, another victim of the ongoing culture wars. That is, until a month ago, when Carano filed a lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm for discrimination and wrongful termination. Adding to the case’s prominence is the fact that Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), is covering Carano’s legal expenses. This follows Musk’s August 5 post, which promised to fund the legal bills of anyone who felt they had been unfairly treated by their employer due to their activity on the platform, without any financial limit.
Carano, who has never directly communicated with Musk, regards the world’s wealthiest individual as her guardian angel. “What he’s doing is incredible,” she says. “While many billionaires invest their wealth in private islands and bunkers, Elon Musk is using his to fight significant battles against injustice.” It’s worth noting that Musk holds a grudge against Disney, which ceased all advertising on the platform after Musk endorsed a conspiracy theory on X alleging that Jews promoted “hatred of whites” and supported the influx of “hordes of minorities” into Western nations. During an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in November, Musk openly criticized Disney’s decision to withdraw advertising, directing a blunt message at Bob Iger, who was in the audience. Both Musk and Disney declined to comment for this story.
“You become unemployable,” Carano says, reflecting on her banishment from Hollywood. “And then it becomes acceptable for others to disrespect you. You’re burdened with this disrespect and shame, affecting both your physical and mental well-being. You feel hopeless. So, being able to fight back feels empowering.”