Karen Fukuhara, best known for playing Kimiko Miyashiro on Prime Video’s comic book series “The Boys” and Katana in David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad,” revealed on Instagram that she was assaulted outside of a cafe on Wednesday. The actor did not reveal the location of the incident but wrote that the assault was “the first time I’ve been harmed physically.”
“Today I was struck in the head by a man,” she wrote, noting that she was “physically fine” after the attack. “This shit needs to stop. Us women, Asians and the elderly need your help.”
“I rarely share about my private life but something happened today that I thought was important,” Fukuhara continued. “I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head. It came out of nowhere. We made no eye contact before, I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. It came to my surprise and my hat flew off. By the time I looked back, he was a few feet away from me (he must have kept walking after hitting me).”
Fukuhara, who used the hashtag “Stop Asian Hate” to accompany her post, said she thought about “confronting” her assaulter but realized it “wasn’t worth the risk.” The actor added, “After a few seconds of staring at each other, and him yelling at me, he eventually walked away.”
“I write this, because I’ve had conversations with multi-racial friends of mine that had no idea these hate crimes happen to everyday, regular people — people that they share meals with,” she wrote. “I felt it was important to raise awareness.”
She mentioned that she’s now considering taking self-defense classes after the “shock” of the attack. She expressed relief that her assaulter was not carrying a deadly weapon.
“Why is this something we as ‘victims’ have to think about?” Fukuhara asked. “What satisfaction are these perpetrators getting from hitting women, Asians, the elderly? They need to be held accountable. What can we do as a community to prevent these horrible crimes?”
Her “The Boys” co-stars rallied around her in the comments section of her post. Chace Crawford wrote, “F this person!! Hope you’re ok this is awful.”
Jack Quaid added “Karen thank you for sharing your experience. I’m sorry that happened to you. Love you. Here if you need anything.” Laz Alonso shared, “This pisses me off. Wish I was there….”
Variety has reached out to Fukuhara’s representative for further comment.