©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection
John Boyega called out “Star Wars” for being “so white” during an interview as part of the new Apple TV+ original documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood” (via Entertainment Weekly). Boyega debuted as Finn in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and reprised the character in “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker.” His role in the sequel trilogy led to online harassment from racist and toxic “Star Wars” fans upset with a Black actor playing a lead hero in the space franchise.
“Lemme tell ya, ‘Star Wars’ always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space. It’s a franchise that’s so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something,” Boyega said in the documentary. “You can always tell it’s something when some ‘Star Wars’ fans try to say, ‘Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!’ It’s like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It’s like, they just scattered that in there, bro!”
“They’re okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just a bit too much! They’re pandering,'” the actor added, while also acknowledging that being cast in the franchise was a “fundamental moment” in his career.
Boyega first aired his grievances to GQ magazine in 2020 about Disney’s fumbling of diversity in his “Star Wars” trilogy. He said at the time: “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.”
“You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” Boyega continued. “But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck 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.”
Boyega later revealed to THR that a Disney executive reached out to him following his GQ interview. He said he had “a very honest, a very transparent conversation” with the Disney executive and added: “There was a lot of explaining on their end in terms of the way they saw things. They gave me a chance also to explain what my experience was like. I’d hope that me being so open with my career, at this stage, would help the next man, the guy that wants to be the assistant DOP, the guy that wants to be a producer. I hope that the conversation is not such a taboo or elephant in the room now, because someone just came and said it.”
“Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood” is now available to stream on Apple TV+.
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