From The Mandalorian to The White Lotus: the TV stars getting sacked for their politics
Gina Carano used to have a reputable acting career, maintaining a comfortable level of fame as someone who occasionally appeared in The Mandalorian. Given the fan reaction to the role – and Disney’s fixation with awarding a spin-off to every character who has appeared in a Star Wars property – it seemed that she would go far. But then … the tweeting started.
Carano began posting messages on Twitter (now X) taking in Covid denialism, her mistrust of the 2020 election results and, most egregiously, how being a Republican was a bit like being a Jew in Nazi Germany. The outcry was loud and immediate: her character was cut from The Mandalorian in 2021, with Lucasfilm calling the tweets “abhorrent and unacceptable.” She was later dropped by her talent agency.
Now she’s back in the news again, suing Disney and Lucasfilm for wrongful termination and sexual discrimination. If she wins, she will receive $75,000 (£59,000) and a court order to get her back on The Mandalorian, at which point we can presume that everything will be peachy and not awkward at all.
You suspect that Hollywood will be watching Carano’s lawsuit very closely indeed; she’s far from the only actor to be removed from a show for their beliefs. This, for example, should have been the happiest time of Miloš Biković’s life. The Serbian-Russian actor was recently hired to star in the third season of The White Lotus, a juggernaut of a show that’s earned a reputation for catapulting lesser-known performers into the stratosphere. Last weekend, he was publicly un-hired, after Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused him of supporting the Russian invasion. The ministry made a video, shared on X and addressed to HBO, outlining Biković’s history of filming in annexed Crimea, allegedly defending Russia’s war with Ukraine and being granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin. Biković called his firing a “disturbing precedent”.
And then there’s Sara Ramírez, who was dropped last month from the Sex and the City spin-off, And Just Like That. This one’s a little more complicated. On 16 January, Ramirez published an Instagram post that claimed “casting directors and agents are making black lists of actors and workers who post anything in support of Palestinians and Gaza to ensure they will not work again”, insinuating that Ramírez was let go for being vocally pro-Palestinian.
However, according to DailyMail.com, sources close to the show have questioned this – pointing out that Ramírez’s character, Che Diaz, was widely regarded as terribly annoying and that viewers would probably be thankful if they were quietly removed.
That said, Ramírez’s claims aren’t without precedent. Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency after speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York last year. The Scream star Melissa Barrera was fired by the franchise’s production company after she posted statements on social media likening Gaza to a “concentration camp”.
Firings based on stars’ personal views do seem to be picking up steam. Obviously there’s a huge difference between vocalising support for people who are being bombed and comparing all of Hollywood to Nazi Germany, but the eagerness to ditch anyone who risks causing controversy shows a new twitchiness on the part of the entertainment industry. True, outcries of the sort that derailed Biković and Ramírez put executives in a tricky spot, caught between maintaining the continuity of their shows and copping to an almighty walloping on social media, but this trigger happiness may well work against them. In the worst instance these firings help to create martyrs – if anything, Carano has only got louder since she was fired, given lengthy Twitter (now X) tirades against Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy and making statements about how she was silenced by a “totalitarian mob.” But they also feed the irresistible conspiracy theory that the television industry works as a homogenous entity, rejecting anyone whose values don’t align with the consensus.
The outcome of Carano’s lawsuit will be fascinating, not least because a line will quickly form behind her. If the judge rules that she shouldn’t have been fired for her beliefs, then there is every chance that Ramirez, Biković, Sarandon, Barrera, Johnston and anyone else with curtailed contracts will jump in and file similar suits. Maybe they will ask the courts to reinstate them on their shows as well. Getting to earn a living in a workplace full of people who have already publicly rejected you once before. Isn’t that the dream?