Riz Ahmed, who played Bodhi Rook in 2016’s Rogue One, was supposed to attend Star Wars Celebration in April (where the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker premiered), but he never made it. The reason at the time was unclear, only that “due to circumstances beyond his control, Riz Ahmed will be canceling his full appearance,” according to the official Star Wars Celebration Twitter account. But while speaking at the CAA Amplify conference, a three-day “leadership summit focusing on diversity and multicultural issues across entertainment, sports, tech, and politics,” the Venom star revealed the real reason he was a no-show: he had been stopped by Homeland Security:
Ahmed discussed how for 15 years he’s been consistently stopped, searched, and interviews at airports because of his race, and [earlier this year], was headed to a Star Wars convention in Chicago when Homeland Security stopped him from boarding the plane.
Directing his attention towards Hassan Minhaj, Ahmed said that “he can win a Peabody, I can win an Emmy, Ibtihaj Muhammad can go to the Olympics, but some of these obstacles are systemic and we can’t really face them alone, we need your help. I’m basically here to ask for your help, because it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary. I’ve often wondered, is this going to be the year when they round us up, if this is going to be the year they put Trump’s registry into action. If this is going to be the year they ship us all off.”
(Via Hollywood Reporter)