John Boyega tweets apology following criticism over response to Kelly Marie Tran question

John Boyega has taken to Twitter to clarify a response he gave to a question about his Star Wars co-star Kelly Marie Tran.

During an interview with Variety, Boyega was asked about the harassment that drove The Last Jedi star Kelly Marie Tran to delete her Instagram posts and leave the platform entirely back in 2018.

At the time, many people attributed Tran's departure from Instagram to internet trolls who had plagued the star with hateful messages following her breakout role in the 2017 Star Wars film.

In the piece published Wednesday, Variety's Adam B. Vary asked Boyega about social media engagement after appearing in a Star Wars film, and "about the small subset people who are very vocal and very negative, and having to navigate that," citing Tran's experience.

Here's Boyega's response to the interviewer's question, in full:

"Being in this position, you just understand the masses, how the masses think, you know. Through social media, we get to engage, we get to have fun. But at the same time, for those who are not mentally strong, you are weak to believe in every single thing that you read. That’s, you know, it is what it is. I don’t know, for me anyway, when I see that [backlash], I’m like, well, that’s actually not true. But no, it is actually not true. So it’s kind of like [shrugs] it is what it is. But to engage, to connect with the fans who otherwise wouldn’t get a day to day experience, especially during things like the press tour, and behind the scenes stuff, is always good."

It didn't go down well. Following the interview's publication, a number of people took to social media to criticise Boyega's use of the word "weak."

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On Thursday morning, the actor took to Twitter to clarify his comments — and to issue an apology.

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In this last post, Boyega is likely referring to the tweet he posted in summer 2018, shortly after Tran deleted her Instagram posts, in which he hit out at people harassing Star Wars actors.

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Mashable has reached out to Tran's representatives for comment.