John Boyega is addressing his decision to publicly speak out about the racism he experienced after joining the Star Wars franchise.
The Woman King actor, 33, exclusively revealed to Us Weekly why he felt it was important to call out the racist backlash he endured following his appearance in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, explaining that he “didn’t like what I was seeing.”
“I just didn’t like it,” Boyega told Us at the premiere of Number One on the Call Sheet in Los Angeles earlier this month. “It just went against my point of view. I thought that, in my position, it’s great for people to know how we are related to this. As much as I’m in this position, I still have family friends who are in the real world; [not] in this Hollywood bubble. They get affected by these issues. So to not speak up about it, in my position, that made no real sense to me.”
Boyega starred as Finn, a stormtrooper-turned-resistance fighter, in 2015’s The Force Awakens, 2017’s The Last Jedi and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The British actor told GQ in 2020 that he was the “only cast member whose experience of Star Wars was based on their race.”
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“You realize, ‘I got given this opportunity but I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me,’” Boyega said at the time. “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.’”
While the experience was challenging, Boyega has been able to find joy in his career. He told Us that he has met and befriended several mentors who have helped him navigate the industry and all that comes with it.
“There’s been Robert Downey Jr., who’s mentored me,” Boyega said. “I would say Jamie Foxx, who mentored me. Femi [Oguns], my agent. My father, Samson Boyega. So many people over the years, but [many of them] happened to be good Black men and women who have gone to spaces that I haven’t necessarily gone to. Then, sharing their wisdom from there.”
Boyega is one of the many actors featured in Number One on the Call Sheet, a two-part documentary film on Black Hollywood that is co-produced by Foxx. Following his appearance in the doc, Boyega is scheduled to begin working on action films.
“Woman King, I got to rest and wear nice gowns. Now, they’re at a point where they go, ‘No, John; we need you to jump out of a plane,’” Boyega explains. “So, I’ll be doing an action [film] next. I have the Attack the Block sequel coming up that we’re doing. There’s a whole bunch of projects that are going to be announced in the coming months.”
Number One on the Call Sheet premieres globally on Friday, March 28, on Apple TV+.
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