Star Wars’ Kelly Marie Tran Had More Lines For The Oscars Than The Rise Of Skywalker, And Fans Are Losing It

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Rose Tico stands with The Resistance at their base

When we last left the saga of how Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker arguably sidelined actor Kelly Marie Tran, fans were livid about how little her character Rose Tico had to do in the ninth and final episode of the Skywalker Saga. However, it didn’t take that long for this mistake to find a kind of redemption, as a lot people have noticed that in her appearance as an Oscar presenter during the Academy Awards last night, Tran actually got more screen time than she did in the final big blockbuster of 2019.

It wasn’t too long after Kelly Marie Tran had appeared as a presenter for the 2020 Oscars that social media started to pick up on the fact that in that singular capacity, the Star Wars actor had more to do than she did in the entirety of director J.J. Abrams’ recent holiday blockbuster.

You might think that this claim is an exaggeration, but considering how Rose Tico was only featured in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for a total of one minute and 16 seconds, it’s confirmed to be accurate.

Even members of the film critic community couldn’t help but get in on ribbing the experience that lead to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker becoming what could potentially be named the most controversial entry in the canon thus far. Commenting on Kelly Marie Tran's appearance at the Oscars, IndieWire's David Ehrlich wrote,

Kelly Marie Tran not only got some prime airtime for presenting at the Oscars, but she actually made it into other random moments during the show’s telecast, with absolutely radiant reactions to the proceedings of the night.

Check out this tweet highlighting Tran absolutely loving one of director Bong Joon-ho’s several wins for Parasite at last night’s ceremony:

It’s a story that almost redeems the internet, as one can’t help but experience this moment while contrasting it to the events that led Kelly Marie Tran to temporarily leave social media because of the intense trolling she had experienced.

Her post Star Wars: The Last Jedi harassment ended up sending her to therapy as well, but eventually she returned, and The Oscars provided the better angels on Twitter to to be excited about her presence.

The actress even brightened the night's most surprising musical moment, which saw Eminem singing his Oscar winning song “Lose Yourself” 17 years after he was a no-show to accept his for 8 Mile. Sure enough, the cameras cut to Kelly Marie Tran, bopping along to the classic rap hit, and it was Twitter gold:

It should be noted that the reduced presence of Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t always planned, as there were more scenes with her filmed, but they were eventually cut. Even running up to the film’s release the actress teased Rose Tico as a more integral part of The Resistance in the most recent entry to this multi-billion dollar series.

If you still don’t believe us about how little screen time Kelly Marie Tran had in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, you can still catch the film in theaters now – though it might be a bit difficult as the screen count for the film has been dropping as of late.

Mike Reyes
Senior Movies Contributor

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.