John Boyega Says He Had An ‘Honest’ & ‘Transparent’ Conversation W/ Disney After Claiming His ‘Star Wars’ Character Was ‘Pushed To The Side’

November 3, 2020 by Demi Lobo in Film with 0 Comments

John Boyega Says He Had An ‘Honest’ & ‘Transparent’ Conversation W/ Disney After Claiming His ‘Star Wars’ Character Was ‘Pushed To The Side’

British actor John Boyega says that once he left Disney, after accusing them of pushing his character to the side, a “transparent” conversation was had with the company

John Boyega is best known for playing Finn in Star Wars films: The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019.) The actor originally said that he cut ties with Disney to work on other projects, before accusing the company of not knowing what to do with his and other actors of colors’ roles, adding that his character started out as a main character but slowly turned into a side character. He said earlier this year:

“You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything.”

He continued,

“[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. I’ll say it straight up.”

John Boyega added that Disney knew what to do with his white co-stars but dropped the ball when it came to himself or other actors of color that were a part of the Star Wars films.

https://youtu.be/or_yxlz7D88

Now, John Boyega says that after he left the company they had a “transparent” conversation.

He told The Hollywood Reporter:

“I’m the type of person that came into an industry in which I felt there was, not to give it the L.A. stab, just a lot of pretense.I don’t roll like that. I’ve been in situations in life in which I know what it feels like to have your life at risk. There are deeper things going on here. I don’t care about trying to mesh in with the system in order to secretly work it. That’s just not my way.”

He continued:

“Everyone’s just got to have an honest and open conversation. It doesn’t have to be conflicting or rude, but it’s a chance for us to actually, really and truly understand where each other is coming from.”

He said that he had that type of talk with Disney and added:

“It was a very honest, a very transparent conversation. 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.”

What are your thoughts on John Boyega having a “transparent” conversation with Disney? Tell us in the comments!