With “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” long behind us, the cast of the recent trilogy including Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac have all been eager to move on.
At the time of the first film in the new series the actors seemed to be happy to be involved, but as the toxic fandom around the series rose and the creative direction of the franchise went all over the place, those involved had some serious frustrations.
One who has been quite vocal with those issues is Boyega, who played the stormtrooper Finn. Speaking to GQ recently, the actor has gone into more detail about his experience, how fandom never fully embraced him because of his race, and how he’s not going to hold back on his annoyance anymore:
“Obviously at the time I was very genuinely happy to be a part of it. But my dad always tells me one thing: ‘Don’t overpay with respect.’ You can pay respect, but sometimes you’ll be overpaying and selling yourself short.
What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up. Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f–k all.
So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.”
He also says he had a unique experience as compared to some of the other actors:
“I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race. Let’s just leave it like that. It makes you angry with a process like that. It makes you much more militant; it changes you. Because you realize, ‘I got given this opportunity but I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me.’
Nobody else in the cast had people saying they were going to boycott the movie because [they were in it]. Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, ‘Black this and Black that and you shouldn’t be a Stormtrooper.’ Nobody else had that experience. But yet people are surprised that I’m this way. That’s my frustration.”
Boyega’s comments follow in the wake of the recent BLM protests and the larger spotlight on fair representation and portrayal in media. The British-Nigerian actor meanwhile has a busy slate of films ahead including the legal drama “Naked Singularity,” Steve McQueen’s upcoming anthology drama “Small Axe,” and Netflix’s “They Cloned Tyrone” and “Rebel Ridge”.
The full interview can be found up at GQ.
