The ugliest element of the backlash against The Last Jedi was all the hate unfairly flung at actress Kelly Marie Tran due to some having problems with her character Rose Tico. In response to this, more reasonable Star Wars fans – i.e. everyone else – then came forward to champion Tran and she rightly became a huge fandom favorite. There was a lot of excitement to see her in The Rise of Skywalker, then, so many were furious when she ended up having hardly any screentime in the Skywalker saga conclusion.
All the anger about this had calmed down a bit since the movie came out a couple of months ago, but last night social media was once again flooded with criticisms about Rose being left on the sidelines in TROS. The reason was because Kelly Marie Tran appeared during Sunday’s Oscar ceremony as a presenter and folks couldn’t help but notice that the Academy Awards made much better use of the star than Rise did.
Fans have calculated that Rose was only on screen for a total of 80 seconds (!) in TROS, and she definitely had more screentime than that at the Oscars.
KELLY MARIE TRAN GOT MORE SCREEN TIME AT THE #OSCARS THAN RISE OF SKYWALKER.
— Eugene Buenaventura (@EugeneBuenaven) February 10, 2020
#Oscars Kelly Marie Tran had more screentime in the Oscars than in TROS ….
— JadeReyLove (@JadeReyLove) February 10, 2020
More lines, too!
Oscars gave Kelly Marie Tran more lines than JJ Abrams did
— actioncookbook (@actioncookbook) February 10, 2020
What’s more, the ceremony really showcased Tran’s knack for comedy.
the Oscars made better use of Kelly Marie Tran’s comedic talent than Star Wars
— Katie Minard (@KatieMinard) February 10, 2020
It was great to see Tran, but her Oscar appearance is reminding people of how mad they are about Rose’s role in TROS.
Kelly Marie Tran just got more screen time on the #Oscars broadcast than in the last Star Wars and now I'm angry all over again! WHY'D YA HAVE TO PLAY ROSE LIKE THAT, JJ!?
— Chelsea Davison (@chelsea_davison) February 10, 2020
Was Kelly Marie Tran’s turn as an Oscar presenter just better overall than Rose Tico? Some certainly think so.
https://twitter.com/savannahroakes/status/1226682441508773888
Writer Chris Terrio has previously defended Tran’s lack of screentime in Rise of Skywalker. He explained that the plan was to feature her in more scenes with Leia at the Resistance base. However, due to the difficult process of repurposing archive footage of the late Carrie Fisher, few of these scenes were able to be used in the finished film.
This didn’t cut it with Star Wars fans, though, as they think she should have joined the adventure with the rest of the main gang in the first place. But hey, at least we got more of the actress at the Oscars!