With his appearance in the 2022 Podathon only a few weeks away and Empire magazine teasing an upcoming interview, Rian Johnson talked to Cinemablend about a number of topics, including how he adjusted to negativity on social media when The Last Jedi arrived and got tongues wagging across the galaxy.
“In terms of the bad stuff, I’ll tell you, it’s interesting. That’s been one of the really healthy things for me about the past couple of years, is getting exposed to it. Before I made The Last Jedi, I had never had anyone hate me on the internet. If during the course of a year I got one negative tweet I would go into a panic. I’d be like ‘Oh my god, someone out there doesn’t like me. I need to fix this!’”
“The thing is though, I am really, really thankful. Because what that meant is that my sense of self-worth was attached to the notion of everybody liking me online. And the fact that this process has made me, out of survival, disconnect from that. It’s given me a more realistic view of the system that is social media. There’s a lot of great, genuine interaction that goes on. The bad stuff, the systematic trolling, the almost gamified abuse that some people devote their entire online presence to; honestly, once you’ve seen enough of it, you see the pattern of it. It just sort of gets boring after a while.”
“It doesn’t even give me that little negative ping anymore. And I don’t think it’s even my skin growing tough. It’s just I’ve put in perspective. I realize this is kind of a byproduct of this social Twitter system. There’s going to be some degree of people where this is their hobby, basically. So overall I found it made me adjust to social media where I’m seeing it and using it in a healthier way.”
Star Wars: Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Official Magazine (Hardcover) from Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Various Writers published by Titan Magazines @ ForbiddenPlanet.com – UK and Worldwide Cult Entertainment Megastore
