A high-speed rise
John Boyega’s action-packed ascent gets a boost in ‘Pacific Rim’
BY JEN YAMATO >>> Not too long ago in a galaxy far, far away, John Boyega shot to stardom as a reformed Storm trooper adventuring his way into the Resistance alongside Rey, Poe, Luke and Leia in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
Over the weekend the British actor, 26, became the face of his second blockbuster franchise in three years, leading a phalanx of young mech-suited warriors into the brave new space future as the star of the sci-fi sequel “Pacific Rim Uprising.”
Boyega has spent an inordinate time in his relatively young career dealing with aliens. He first burst onto Hollywood’s radar as the teen hero of U.K. filmmaker Joe Cornish’s 2011 cult favorite “Attack the Block.” In the new youth-leaning, robot-heavy “Pacific Rim” sequel, he once again fights off interstellar beings by uniting human characters on Earth.
“Since I was a kid I was into comic books and movies and TV shows that were about extraordinary situations,” Boyega said during a quiet moment amid a f lurry of photo shoots and interviews. “I guess I’m just now living out my dreams.”
“Pacific Rim Uprising” takes place 10 years after the events of Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim,” the 2013 original that envisioned a future in which humans co-pilot giant mechanized robots to defend Earth from Gojira-esque space invaders.
In that metal-greased monster movie, stubborn heroes learned to sideline their own baggage and join forces — literally, through neural-linking tech inside of enormous Jaeger suits — for the greater good.
Fan-favorite resistance heroes emerged with names like Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). The box office receipts racked up to the tune of $411 million worldwide, with particularly strong overseas sales.
This time Boyega stars as Jake Pentecost, Stacker’s disillusioned son and the new character propel-
ling the franchise forward. For the first time in his career he also pulls double duty as producer — a huge opportunity for any rising star.
He relished the challenge, but more indelibly, he said, “it’s changed my perspective. It makes you a better person because you’re dealing with people on a day-to-day basis … you’re coming up against different obstacles. For me at this stage it’s taught me, ‘OK, cool — this is the beginning of a new pursuit.’ ”
Boyega already broke barriers in space as Finn, the Storm trooper-turned-Resistance hero that blasted him to fame overnight. His off-screen charisma propelled him even higher.
When online trolls erupted in racist chatter over his trailblazing black Storm trooper, he cut through the nonsense with a defiant, confident charm, posting his response on Instagram to his considerable social media following: “Get used to it.”
What his “Pacific Rim” roles behind and in front of the camera represent is a new sensibility in Hollywood — a progressivism “Uprising” writer-director Steven S. DeKnight says was baked into its DNA from the start.
“One of the things that drew me to this project was what Guillermo and Travis Beacham set up in the first movie,” DeKnight explained via phone from New York, “which was the world coming together. It’s inherent in its nature that you would have a multinational, multiethnic cast. To me that just reflects the real world.”
And so in “Uprising,” with the initial Kaiju war a decade in the canonical rearview mirror, Jake and Co. exist in a new normal. Jaegers and their pilots are no longer segregated by nationality but united as one worldwide fighting force.
Kikuchi’s war heroine Mako Mori — one of the only holdovers from the first film — is now a decorated military leader as well as Jake’s adoptive older sister.
“It felt like a natural progression. Everything in this movie was a progression of what Guillermo had done in the first film,” said DeKnight, the “Spartacus” showrunner and television veteran now making his feature directing debut.
The early creative conversations between director and producer-star involved their respective Asian pop cultural influences: Boyega’s love for anime (“The way that each fight matters — not just about the punches that are thrown, but how the story moves forward,” he explained enthusiastically) and DeKnight’s childhood obsession with the Japanese superhero-versus-monsters show “Ultraman,” a spiritual inspiration for “Uprising.”
It’s tempting to ascribe a seriousness of intention to Boyega’s choices as a newly minted global superstar; he was drawn to the “Pacific Rim” sequel, for example, partly because of its outreach to younger audiences.
“One of the things I was attracted to was the message and the fact that it was about young people facing challenges bigger than themselves. I found it quite motivational,” said Boyega, who is a mentor in the film to a scrappy teenage Jaeger pilot (Cailee Spaeny).
“But,” he added with a laugh, “I’m still a 26-year-old young man. I think it’s very important to realize that.”
Rian Johnson, who directed Boyega in the “Star Wars” film “The Last Jedi,” admired his energy — and sees a bright future for him on both sides of the camera.
“It doesn’t surprise me [that Boyega is producing]. He’s young, but he’s a firebrand, ambitious, he’s a movie star — not just in terms of current status but in terms of the charisma that he’s got and how he carries the screen,” said Johnson. “I think the sky’s the limit for that guy.”
Their creative conversations around Finn’s journey revolved around strength: specifically, giving Finn new emotional terrain to explore after his morally uncertain introduction in “The Force Awakens.”
“Taking a step back from having to be strong and in control was a learning curve for me,” Boyega remembered. “It went opposite from my instincts — especially as a man. Growing up in 2018 you see a battle, you think a character’s going to go through it. It’s interesting and I think beneficial for the character to take a path which isn’t necessarily always brave. He basically represented humanity for me in [‘Episode 7’].”
“But when we went onto [‘The Last Jedi’] I was done with that!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t want Finn to just be comic relief, running around not knowing what to do for the whole trilogy. I just wanted the character to have finally decided to do something for the betterment of others rather than just himself.”
Boyega’s last few years have been a marathon of activity. He went from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” to the gripping period drama “Detroit” for director Kathryn Bigelow. Then came “Pacific Rim Uprising,” a grueling international shoot over four-plus months, after which Boyega found time to act in a production of “Woyzeck” in London at the historic Old Vic Theatre.
Along the way he’s come up in great company among fellow British stars like Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong’o, all of whom he cheered on when “Black Panther” opened to record-breaking, boundary obliterating results.
“I was very, very proud,” he said. “The same way I see them rooting for me, when they came to see ‘Star Wars’ — Chadwick was there, Lupita came down, Letitia came down, and they all showed their support.”
“Star Wars” fame brought with it the power to take agency in his career, and telling diverse stories is one of the primary objectives of Boyega’s production company. Capitalizing on his rising clout will in turn, he hopes, empower a wider spectrum of voices telling stories and being seen and heard in film.
“To start a movie from scratch is something that I’ve always wanted to be a part of and I realized — with the opportunity [after] ‘Star Wars’ — it would benefit me not only as an actor,” he said, “but it would also benefit others in terms of the kind of diverse and interesting stories we’re going to be able to locate and bring into the industry right now.”
And recent conversations around inclusion riders, prompted by Frances McDormand’s mention on the Academy Awards stage, have only added only more tools to the arsenals of filmmakers trying to work toward inclusivity and diverse representation.
“Some people will probably take it the wrong way and be like, ‘Well, if you’re not white that means you can’t get cast in movies now’ — no, we all know white people will still be in films! That’s not going to ever be a problem,” he said with a laugh.
“It really is about finding a way to engage talent that otherwise wouldn’t be engaged in your project,” he said, “and to help influence our stories to reflect the world that we’re in.”