John Boyega is done with ‘Star Wars,’ but he’s happy his experience led to progress
John Boyega had no problems saying “fin” to his “Star Wars” character.
Boyega, who played reformed Stormtrooper Finn in the latest “Star Wars” trilogy, went on the radio show “Tell Me Everything With John Fugelsang” to discuss how he feels about the future of his character and the good that came from his disappointing experience with the franchise.
“At this point I’m cool off it. I’m good off it,” Boyega said. “I think Finn is at a good confirmation point where you can just enjoy him in other things, the games, the animation. But I feel like ‘[Episode] VII’ to ‘[Episode] IX’ was good for me.”
When Fugelsang discussed how Disney supported “Obi-Wan Kenobi” star Moses Ingram amid racist online attacks, he noted that when a similar situation befell Boyega, Disney had no game plan.
“When I started, it really wasn’t a conversation you could bring up,” Boyega said. “You know how they went through it, it was kind of like, ‘Let’s just be silent.’”
Speaking with British GQ in 2020, Boyega criticized Disney for not devoting enough time on nonwhite characters in the “Star Wars” franchise.
“I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race,” John Boyega told British GQ of his “Star Wars” role.
“[But] 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,” he told the magazine. “I’ll say it straight up.”
The British actor, 30, also called out the studio for giving “all the nuance” to Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley‘s characters in the trilogy, but not knowing what to do with his or Kelly Marie Tran‘s characters.
But Boyega was pleased by Disney’s swift support for Ingram.
“That’s the peace that I felt, Moses Ingram being protected makes me feel protected,” the “Detroit” actor told Fugelsang earlier this week. “It makes me feel like, ‘Cool, I am not the elephant in the room.’
Less than a week after appearing in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi,’ actor Moses Ingram and the ‘Star Wars’ franchise are shutting down a flurry of hateful messages.
“But now, to see how blatant it is, to see Ewan McGregor come and support ... it for me fulfills my time where I didn’t get support. It doesn’t make me feel bitter at all, it makes me feel like ... sometimes you’re not the guy to get the blessing,” he said. “Sometimes you’re Moses, you lead the people to the mountain, but you see the destination, you don’t get to go in. You get others to go in, and that’s where you get your happiness from.”
The “Breaking” star hoped his situation helped Black actors feel more confident in speaking out about feelings of discomfort.
“What the conversation does is, it for me is so positive because it gives other actors the ability to be able to say, ‘OK, look, I’m not comfortable with this’ or ‘This is what’s happening, this is the kind of support I need.’ And that for me is what I wanted out of everything.”
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