Fruits Basket star Laura Bailey is getting death threats over her performance in the controversial Naughty Dog game The Last of Us: Part II.
There are a lot of talented voice actors out there, especially in the anime world. One such actress whose name is familiar among anime fans is Laura Bailey.
She’s been a voice actor for decades. Some of her roles include Chi Chi (Dragon Ball), Tohru (Fruits Basket), Lust (Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood), and Keiko Yukimura (Yu Yu Hakusho).
Despite a stunning performance as Abby in The Last of Us: Part II, gamers are upset at the writing of her character. Now they’ve decided to take their rage out on the closest person they could find: Laura Bailey herself.
Laura Bailey deals with constant harassment on Twitter
Some of these Twitter users told her to die, some said they wanted to kill her personally and that she should “watch out” for it, and some threatened to kill her family, even her child.
After Laura Bailey posted this and included screenshots of the horrible posts, thousands of replies followed with people offering love and support to the actress at this time. Upon receiving all this support and kindness, Bailey posted the following message to her true fans.
It’s hard to understand why anyone would be so clueless and cruel. Laura Bailey is a human being–she is not the fictional character she voices in the video game. Unfortunately, it seems that for some people the line between fantasy and reality become chaotically blurred. The thought is scary. Hopefully the backlash they received will help them wake up and get the help they need.
One of the users who threatened her offered an apology, which she accepted and replied to. Here is the original threat, with the user’s apology and Laura Bailey’s response.
How she handled this shows how kind of a person Bailey must be. It would be incredibly hard to respond to someone who said such things to you–a random stranger on the internet. She did it, though, and she kept moving forward with positivity. This person–and all the others who harassed her and said horrible things to her–need to take a look at their actions and realize they can’t treat human beings like that. It’s so sad when things like this happen, but Laura Bailey handled it with grace.
Fans step up to encourage and support Laura
She also made another post to show her gratitude and awe at the thousands of people who stepped in to offer her support.
After seeing everything that happened and how she handled this atrocious situation with kindness and forgiveness, it’s clear to see that Laura Bailey is the kind of person others should look to when navigating how to address situations such as these. It seems that Bailey was secretly the perfect fit for playing the role of Tohru Honda all along. Forgiveness and believing in people are two of likely many attributes she and her character share.
We are all rooting for her and hope she continues feeling the love and support she deserves. Bravo, Ms. Bailey. Bravo.
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