John Boyega Only Had £45 in the Bank When Director J.J. Abrams Told Him He Won Star Wars Role

https://people.com/john-boyega-only-had-45-in-bank-when-won-star-wars-role-11714549?taid=67fd25c516f5bc00014b1427

41 comments

  1. >”I had been auditioning for so long, so I felt like he kind of took away my dignity a little bit,” Boyega said. “So I decided to pretend as if I was busy, you know, when you just pretend that you’re busy. ‘I got other stuff to do, J.J.,’ ” Boyega recalled. “He goes, ‘Where are you?’ And I said ‘I’m at this art show in Greenwich, mate. I’m very, very busy. Where are you?’ He goes, ‘Well, I’m in Mayfair and [at a] restaurant. Need to talk to you now. And we’ll talk about something important.’ ”

    >”And I go, ‘Okay, okay, I’m gonna be right there.’ At the time I had £45 in my account. It took £33 and 83p to get to J.J. Do the math,” he added.

    >”So I go in. Each step I took, I was nervous. I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ You know, J.J. is a phenomenal, nice guy, and if he was to tell me I didn’t get the part, he would still feed me,” the actor continued. “And so I sat down and, J.J. just said, ‘Thank you so much for coming back. I know we’ve kind of [strained] you with this amount of auditions.’ At that time, I took it upon myself to try and get another audition and go like, ‘J.J., please. Look, I can audition again. I can do British, Scottish, Nigerian, whatever. And he goes, ‘You’re [in Star Wars].’ “

  4. I didn’t realize Attack the Block did so poorly. Just looked it up, apparently it only opened in 8 theaters and barely broke 1 million gross at the domestic box office, 6 million worldwide, with a budget of 13 million. Such a shame, it’s one of my favorite movies.

  5. Really big bummer his character got kinda wasted, he was great in the first movie and they could have done waaay more creative and exciting stuff with his arc. Instead, they just went in a totally generic direction. Storm Trooper to Jedi would have been sick, among other options.

  6. He didn’t get anything for 24: Live Another Day? Could’ve sworn that was done before TFA. Man, Kiefer Sutherland must really be cold.

  7. The video of him watching the first trailer for the first time is the kind of thing the internet was invented for.

    I’ll never forget my “HFS, they got MOSES!?” reaction to the news.

  8. At least showed his appreciation by complaining about his role.

  9. Its too bad that he started blaming fans for not liking black characters being front and center even tho whoever wrote the script is the one who fucked him

  10. John was my favorite thing about 7. Then 8 came out and the knives out guy put John in the background to feature his new characters he made. I’ve never seen episode 9 because 8 just ruined it.

  11. Honestly, im not really surprised by this. He didn’t have much of a career before Star Wars, sadly. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and watch Attack the Block. It’s a great little hidden gem of a movie starring a young John Boyega, plus Nick Frost! That small cult hit was easily the biggest thing Boyega was in before getting cast in Star Wars. Talk about a big come up!

  12. I can’t wait for the fourth movie. When Finn finally tells Rey that really important thing he needed to tell her in the third movie. It’ll be nice to finally get that cleared up.

  13. I call bullshit on this 45 dollars thing…many actors have said that and unless they’re completely alone, that’s not true and I’ve known actors that have said stupid things like this before. John has been shitting on his character again recently so I don’t. Uh this at all

  14. Which other actors were in consideration for him to win the role?

  15. They need to give him a 3 episode mini series where he goes off in his own and finds other StormTroopers that got out and they go fuck shit up for the Empire. They know the systems, they know the rules, they know who to kidnap.

    Star Wars : Dirty Work.

  18. It’s crazy, after attack the block, his name was being circulated a lot. I watched it and was like “oh yeah, he’s got great screen presence”. Too bad it was a tough road but glad he finally arrived. After the TFA I wanted him in more stuff and they dialed his arc back wayyyy too much. He’s force sensitive and didn’t even lean into it after the first movie.

    And then ruined him with rose.

  21. “And when he got his first paycheck the first thing he did was buy a hot meal”

  22. CAN WE STOP TALKING ABOUT THE GUY WHO HATES STAR WARS

  25. Bullshit “it could happen to anyone” feel-good journalism

  26. To this day I still believe Finn should’ve been the first former storm trooper, non force wielding Jedi in the series

  28. That’s just fiscally irresponsible. Wasn’t he acting for years prior to this?

  29. That’s more than I have in the Bank. Someone hier me to be a Movie Star please

  30. I watched They Cloned Tyrone a few days ago and that was a great showcase for Boyega as a leading man. I love that movie.

  33. And joke was on him for it being a secondary role and not the fuckin Jedi role…bro fuck licasfilms fr they mad weird for that

  34. It’s heartwarming to know J. J. Abrams is one of my designated Pallbearers so I know I’ll be let down with ease, one last time, by a skilled professional.

  35. What a waste of a character that could’ve been so much more in the franchise

  36. Why is his star wars gig coming up all the time now . He had no money, he hates the fans. So what, it was decades ago.

  37. His autographed Star Wars cards go for a minimum of twice that now!

  40. Yet still he managed to complain about everything and alienate everyone.

  41. I blame Star Wars fans for not supporting him during that tough time.

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