Gina Carano says Elon Musk is ‘incredible’ for backing her lawsuit against Disney

Gina Carano has said that Elon Musk is “incredible” for financially supporting her discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit against Disney.

Carano has accused Disney of unfairly firing her from her role in The Mandalorian over her tweets. She argues that she was dismissed from the company in 2021 for voicing conservative opinions on social media, including on what was then Twitter.

The 41-year-old actor and former MMA fighter was fired from the Disney+ Star Wars spin-off series in February 2021 after she shared a social media post comparing the Republican experience in the US to that of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Carano played the special forces warrior character Cara Dune opposite Pedro Pascal’s titular Mandalorian.

Musk is footing Carano’s legal bills, after posting last August on the social media site he bought and renamed X: “If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill. No limit.”

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Carano says that she’s never directly communicated with Musk but that she has come to view him as her guardian angel.

“I think it’s pretty incredible what he is doing,” she says. “A lot of billionaires put their money into buying islands and building bunkers. Elon Musk is using his money to fight massive injustice battles.”

Last month, X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch said in a statement to Reuters: “As a sign of X Corp’s commitment to free speech, we’re proud to provide financial support for Gina Carano’s lawsuit, empowering her to seek vindication of her free speech rights on X and the ability to work without bullying, harassment, or discrimination.”

But Musk’s decision to fund the lawsuit might also be the result of personal animosity between him and Disney chief executive Bob Iger. The two have been in a public confrontation for months.

That appears to have begun when Disney joined many other companies in boycotting advertising on X, last year, in response to Elon Musk’s apparent endorsement of an antisemitic post.

Musk then attacked Mr Iger on stage during an event, telling him to “go f*** yourself”, and said that he should be “fired immediately”.

More recently, Musk has posted a range of tweets attacking Disney. “Disney sucks”, he posted last month, and he shared what appeared to be an internal Disney document promoting diversity in another tweet.