How Star Wars’ Most Divisive Movie Gave 1 Actor The Opportunity To Do Rom-Com Remake & Centuries-Spanning Horror Movie

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Despite being a controversial film for many fans, Star Wars: The Last Jedi helped launch the career of Kelly Marie Tran.

Kelly Marie Tran gained recognition for her role as Rose Tico in The Last Jedi, where she played a brave and dedicated member of the Resistance who teams up with Finn to help the rebels evade the First Order. She reprised this role in The Rise of Skywalker, continuing to fight alongside the Resistance. While The Last Jedi received mixed reactions from fans, it launched Tran’s career, leading to roles in several projects. These include the animated film Raya and the Last Dragon, the sequel The Croods: A New Age, the TV series Sorry for Your Loss with Elizabeth Olsen, a remake of The Wedding Banquet, and most recently, the horror film Rock Springs, which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

During a conversation with Ash Crossan from ScreenRant at the SXSW festival for her film Rock Springs, Kelly Marie Tran discussed how she selects roles and where she feels she is in her career. She reflected on the past ten years, acknowledging the difficulties she’s faced in the industry and how grateful she is to be in a position where she can choose the projects she wants to work on. Tran shared that working with Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi, was a valuable mentorship experience early in her career. After her time with Star Wars, she was able to move between big Disney films like Raya and the Last Dragon and smaller, independent projects. You can find her full thoughts below.

I really appreciate you saying that. It’s been an incredible ten years, and I still feel so lucky to be here. It’s amazing that I’ve been able to work as an actor – it’s so difficult to get any film made, let alone be in the small percentage of people who actually get to choose projects! I’m grateful for that every day. Thinking back, The Last Jedi was my first film, which is pretty wild. I had such a wonderful experience, and Rian Johnson was an incredible mentor. After that, I was fortunate enough to work on Raya, and now I’m really focused on and passionate about independent films.

Much of the criticism directed at The Last Jedi wasn’t about the film’s quality, but instead involved racist attacks against Kelly Marie Tran. Reflecting on those difficult experiences, she’s now focused on celebrating her identity and embracing the parts of herself she was once made to feel ashamed. She’s actively working with talented Asian writer-directors, including Vera Miao on Rock Springs, and Heyjin Jun, who served as the Director of Photography.

We often talk about the need for better representation in film and how slowly the industry changes, especially for filmmakers who don’t come from traditionally privileged backgrounds. Recently, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with talented Asian and queer directors, and being on those sets has been truly transformative. Watching Vera direct this film, and seeing our cinematographer Heyjin Jun create such stunning visuals, completely changed my perspective on what’s possible. It’s one thing to talk about representation, but it’s another to witness someone who shares your background achieve something extraordinary. I hope everyone can have that experience. I’m committed to continuing to make genuine films with passionate people who have unique and personal approaches to storytelling, even if it means challenging conventional methods. It can be difficult to tell stories from fresh angles within a studio system, which often favors formulaic approaches. There’s nothing wrong with classic storytelling techniques, but I’ve also had experiences that taught me the importance of artistic freedom. Being able to create art with people who celebrate the parts of myself I was once taught to be ashamed of has been incredibly healing, and that’s what I want to keep doing.

Tran’s latest horror film is getting positive reviews, earning a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In a review for ScreenRant, Grant Hermanns praised her performance as excellent and noted that, with this film and her work in Hulu’s Control Freak, she’s becoming a rising star in the horror genre.

Kelly Marie Tran has been branching out into different kinds of roles, but she’s also revisited the Star Wars universe since the sequel trilogy finished. She provided the voice for Rose in The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special and LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation, and recently played Darth Rose Tico in Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. Because upcoming projects like Shawn Levy’s Starfighter and Daisy Ridley’s New Jedi Order film take place after The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, fans have wondered if Rose might return in live-action, but so far, there’s been no official confirmation.

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2026-03-18 01:08