John Boyega Spent His Last $43 to Meet J.J. Abrams — Then Landed Star Wars
John Boyega recently shared a powerful story at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (via People) about how he landed the role of Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At the time, Boyega was struggling financially and only had about $60 in his bank account. When director J.J. Abrams called to meet, Boyega had to spend most of that money just to get there.
“At the time I had £45 in my account. It took £33 and 83p to get to J.J. Do the math,” he said.
Boyega explained that he had been auditioning for a long time and felt tired and frustrated. When he got the call, he tried to act cool.
“I had been auditioning for so long, so I felt like he kind of took away my dignity a little bit,” Boyega said. “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.’”
Abrams replied, “‘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.’”
Boyega said he was nervous as he made his way to the meeting, unsure of what would happen.
“So I go in. Each step I took, I was nervous,” he said. “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.”
When they sat down, Abrams thanked him for coming back and for doing so many auditions. Boyega even offered to audition again in a different accent — British, Scottish, or Nigerian — just to show how serious he was. But Abrams smiled and told him, “You’re [in ‘Star Wars’].”
Boyega said the moment felt like it was frozen in time. “Like I even noticed how many sugar cubes were in this very crushed little cup that was on the table. Everything felt very surreal,” he said.
To make it even more memorable, co-writer Lawrence Kasdan stepped out and told Boyega: “Kid, this movie’s gonna change your life.” Boyega laughed and added, “And that’s the Hollywood shit. You know what I’m saying?”
Boyega’s debut as Finn in The Force Awakens helped the film earn over $2 billion at the global box office. He also starred in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, both earning more than $1 billion worldwide.
But despite the success, Boyega has been honest about the challenges he faced as a Black actor in the franchise. In a 2020 interview with GQ, he criticized Disney for how it handled diversity and treated characters like Finn and Rose.
“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,” Boyega said.
“You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all… 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’s story is a reminder of the risks actors take and how a single moment can change a life — even if it costs nearly everything to get there.
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