ET was with 'The Force Awakens' director at the GLSEN Respect Awards on Friday night.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has faced some (absurd) racial backlash with the #BoycottStarWarsVII Twitter campaign, a drive against casting a black actor (John Boyega) in the one of the lead roles.
Director J.J. Abrams took a stand just before the trailer debuted last week, posting a message to Instagram that read: “We cannot wait to share the trailer with you tonight. I don’t care if you’re black, white, brown, Jawa, Wookiee, Jedi or Sith. I just hope you like it!”
Despite the dark side of the campaign, Abrams certainly saw the light. ET caught up with the Episode VII mastermind at the GLSEN Respect Awards on Friday night.
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“It’s always hurtful to see anyone speak out in that way,” said Abrams. “But what was beautiful was to see how many people were immediately on that very small fringe group of haters, and in support of everyone. It was a beautiful thing. They turned something ugly into something beautiful.”
And he’s right -- the boycotters were merely a small group of Internet trolls, while the majority of tweets using the hashtag were in support of the film.
“Everyone belongs, and there is nothing more important than embracing,” said Abrams. “When you think about the Force, [it’s] about embracing everyone.”
The trailer debuted last Monday, and managed to raise more questions than it answered. Check out six burning questions we have after watching the trailer in the video below: