Gina Carano has given the most detailed account yet of how her firing from The Mandalorian in 2021 affected her health, revealing she became pre-diabetic during a five-year retreat from public life before fighting her way back.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani on Wednesday, Carano described the immediate aftermath of the cancellation as a physical and emotional collapse that went far beyond losing a job.
"I had so much anxiety in my body that my face hurt. Like my skin hurt me," Carano said. "My soul was just crushed. My heart was broken. I felt like there was such injustice in what happened. It was just so harsh."
Paparazzi and stalkers began showing up at her door. She and her partner sold their Los Angeles home, bought an RV, tried Nashville, and eventually settled in Montana. By late 2024, her doctor delivered a serious warning.
"You go to the doctor, you get your blood work, you're pre-diabetic, you're in trouble, you're very sick. Time to get your life," Carano said.
September 2024 was the turning point. She committed to getting physically healthy, and by the time Dana White called her in December about a potential fight, she had already lost 30 pounds. The fight with Rousey, eventually made through Most Valuable Promotions and Netflix rather than the UFC, became the framework her recovery was built around.
"I'm happy to have had it lead me here, because I'm doing this thing that saved my life in the beginning and now it's saving my life again," she said. "It's fresh, it's exciting, it feels groundbreaking, and I feel like I just had to get back to who I am. This is where it started."
Carano said she wants her comeback to carry a message for anyone else who has been in a similar place, and that she has moved well past any concern about how the story looks from the outside.
"I want people to know, I'm over embarrassment by now, you're never too far gone," she said. "You can bring yourself back from cancellation, from being really obese. If you're in an unhealthy state and something bad happens to you, that semi-healthy state turns into devastation on your body and it's really hard to turn the corner on that."
Carano vs. Rousey headlines the first live MMA event on Netflix on May 16 from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
