Riz Ahmed's Star Wars Celebration Chicago Appearance Was Canceled Because Homeland Security Wouldn't Let Him Board His Flight

James Whitbrook
Today 11:18am

On the first day of Star Wars Celebration Chicago this past April, it was suddenly announced that Riz Ahmed—who played Imperial courier-turned Rebel hero Bodhi Rook in Rogue One—had to cancel his appearance at the convention. Now, the actor’s revealed why, and it’s another reflection of being a minority attempting to travel in the U.S.

As THR reports, speaking recently at CAA’s Amplify leadership summit—which examines issues pertaining to diversity, treatment of minorities, and multicultural issues in both politics and the sports, entertainment, and tech industries—Ahmed brought up his appearance (or rather lack thereof) at Celebration Chicago.

Link to tweet

He revealed that the reason he couldn’t attend as planned is that the Department of Homeland Security stopped him from getting on his flight—far from the first time the actor has been impeded in travel efforts in his career:

(Hassan Minhaj) can win a Peabody, I can win an Emmy, Ibtihaj Muhammad can go to the Olympics, but some of these obstacles are systemic and we can’t really face them alone, we need your help. I’m basically here to ask for your help, because it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary. I’ve often wondered, is this going to be the year when they round us up, if this is going to be the year they put Trump’s registry into action. If this is going to be the year they ship us all off.

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