Chloe Bennet is outspoken about her Asian-American heritage. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star has been honest about racism she's experienced in Hollywood — and she's also not afraid to call out other stars who've missed the mark.
This week, Bennet reposted Ed Skrein's open letter about why he stepped down from the upcoming Hellboy movie on her Instagram account. Bennet praised the actor for "standing up against hollywoods continuous insensitivity and flippant behavior towards the Asian American community."
Unfortunately, some trolls used Bennet's Instagram post about Skrein as an opportunity to criticize a personal decision she made about her name. Bennet was born Chloe Wang, but changed her name to Chloe Bennet, taking her father's first name as her last name. She's talked about the decision in various interviews, telling The Daily Beast in 2016, "the first audition I went on after I changed my name, I got booked." (The role she got booked for right after the name change was a guest arc on Nashville.)
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Bennet had the perfect clapback for the trolls, though, as the New York Daily News pointed out.
"Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese," she wrote in a response to one Instagram comment. "It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable."
Bennet also wrote in the comment that she wants to use her platform to help other Asian-American actors.
"I'm doing everything I can, with the platform I have, to make sure no one has to change their name again, just so they can get work," she wrote in the Instagram comment. "So kindly love, fuck off."
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