When it comes down to it, Star Wars is all about not fitting in and being your normal, weird self. It’s also about political conspiracies and government takeovers but that’s a different blog. Similarly, the furry community is also about being yourself. Do you see where this is going?
Amandla Stenberg stars in the latest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, as Osha and Mae Aniseya, Jedi twins who were separated at birth. Stenberg appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon where they shared an unusual experience from after a Star Wars convention which also involved a furry meeting, of course.
The actor began, “I went back to my hotel [after the convention] and I put on my bunny hat and I heard this EDM music coming from outside and I was like, ‘What is that?’” Stenberg told Jimmy Fallon. “So I followed it, naturally, and I went downstairs… and in front of me there was this park — it was so beautiful, the light was shining down — and in the park was like, 50 furries,” they revealed. “That’s when I realized that the Venn diagram of Star Wars fans and furries exists.”
The Bodies Bodies Bodies star said that the furries “welcomed me with open arms.” They added, “I was just having the time of my life and it didn’t even occur to me — I was like, ‘Oh, they think that I, too, am a furry, and now, we are congregating together… it was honesty beautiful.”
But after a quick break back to their hotel room, Stenberg was heartbroken when they returned to find the furry party had disappeared. “My heart shattered. I was so, so sad,” Stenberg said. “I really felt like, I was like, ‘Did I hallucinate that? Am I okay?’ And then I started scouring the streets, I was like, ‘Excuse me, sir, have you seen a group of people in mascot costumes?’ And people are like, ‘No?’ And I’m like, running from street to street looking for them.” You would think that Stenberg would be more accustomed to seeing costumed figures, but perhaps they just weren’t quite used to the Star Wars set quite yet.
Luckily, Stenberg found a furry to follow. “I follow her and she leads me to, I would say, a more exclusive furry meet-up, where they’re all like, reclined on these steps, it’s a little more Gossip Girl kind of energy. Like, it’s more elite,” they added. The elite furry meeting is what helped the actor walk a mile in the furries’ shoes. Or paws.
Stenberg concluded that maybe it’s not filming a Star Wars show that really matters, but the large costumed humans they meet along the way. “I really do understand furries now, and I didn’t understand them before but, it was so nice to just not have to say anything and just wave your paws around and I think that’s what life is really about,” they said. “Furries are great. I think people really misconceived them.”
Obviously, Jimmy Fallon, a man who is often misconceived, was entertained by this idea. Check out the full interview above.