South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
On street and on-screen, Boyega won’t ‘shush’
For anthology film, actor draws upon his own upbringing
NEWYORK — John Boyega is only 28, but being a professional actor of 10 years and a veteran of three “StarWars” films has given him insight into what it’s like for a young performer breaking intoHollywood.
“I always tell young actorswhoare getting into it, they’ve got their first franchise or first big role: You’re gonna have to navigate people assuming that you’re a piece of (expletive),” says Boyega. “Normally the assumption is you keep quiet, you keep cashing checks, and you keep itmoving. That’s the hardest thing to navigate, when you don’t feel that way.”
This year, Boyega has made it clear he doesn’t feel thatway, that he isn’t going to bite his tongue. In July, he gave a fiery speech at a London protest in thewake of George Floyd’s death, shouting through a megaphone and fighting back tears. Hewondered aloud whether he’d have a career afterward.
“Black lives have always mattered,” Boyega told demonstrators. “We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And nowis the time. I ain’twaiting.”
In September, Boyega severed tieswith the London cosmetics brand Jo Malone after the company reshot, with a different brand ambassador, a video he hadmade that touched on his childhood neighborhood andNigerian heritage. He said onTwitter, “dismissively trading out one’s culture thisway is not something I can condone.”
And in aGQinterview in September, Boyega crit
icized themakers of “Star Wars” for their uncertain handling of his character, Finn, and for giving “all the nuance” to characters played byAdamDriver andDaisy Ridley: “What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be muchmore 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.”
In a year riven with resistance, Boyega has seemed suited to the moment— an unapologetically candid actor breaking free of PR-controlledHollywood constraints. Hewon’t, he says, “fashionmy career to be like a politician” or “take the money and shush.”
“People need to go up there and reflect what’s real,” says Boyega. “Sometimes you get angry, sometimes I’mwrong,
sometimes I’m right. Be human, rather than having to get into a space where you’re successful but then you have to lose your identity. That’s whack. No one’s doing that, especially not my generation.”
Boyega stars in Steve McQueen’s “Red, White andBlue,” the third film in the director’s extraordinary anthology of Black life in London fromthe
’60s through the ’80s. The five-film series is playing on theBBCin theU.K. and on Amazon Prime in theU.S.; “Red, White andBlue” will debut Dec. 4 onAmazon. In the true story, Boyega plays Leroy Logan, an aspiring research scientist whogives up the lab to join the overwhelmingly white London police force in the
1980s.
It’s almost certainly Boyega’s best performance yet— a reintroduction,
in away, to a young actor whohas shownflashes of his potential butwhoto most remains identifiable as a central “StarWars” characterwhoseemed to drift to the sidelines of the space saga. “Red, White and Blue” putsBoyega front and center andwrestles withmany of the social issues— race, change, belonging— that he is grappling with, too.
“There’s something about him right nowthat’s vital,” saysMcQueen. “You want to hear that voice. It remindsmeof JackNicholson in the ’70s where you wanted to hear that voice. There’s something dangerous and uncensored and untethered and sexy about him. That’s what youwant in a leadingman.”
Logan’s decision to join the police is confounding to his father (SteveToussaint), whowas beaten by
racist police officers. But Logan believes he can, as one of very few officers of color, remake the system fromthe inside, despite regular abuse.
For an actor recoiling fromhis experience within the belly of blockbustermakingHollywood, “Red, White and Blue” has both powerful parallels and telling distinctions about navigating a system that can be inhospitable to people of color.
“Everybody’s different and the fight requires all different types of people, all different types of strategies,” says Boyega. “Being an actor, living within that privilege and having the opportunity to go onto other projects and greenlight things, you can use a lot of that for the impactful stuff. I see the lines between the experiences. ... But you understand that these obstacles are all too familiar.”
Born JohnAdedayo BamideleAdegboyega to parents ofNigerian descent in the Peckham district of London, Boyega drew partly on his own upbringing for “Red, White and Blue”— a drama of institutional racism but also a father-son tale. An early scene recalls a memory of Boyega’s when his father, a Pentecostal minister, was searched by police on the way homefromchurch.
McQueen said he, Boyega and co-writer CourttiaNewland talked a lot “about what Black fathers said to their sons, because theywanted to protect them, and they knew the dangers of the world out there. Obviously themovie is dealing with masculinity in away. But it’s also one generation dealing with the same situation as the younger generation and howthey deal with it differently. It’s a difficult conversation. Whenyouwant to integrate and be a part of something and you find out you’re notwelcome, it’s difficult.”
Since Boyega’s comments about “Star Wars,” he has received a supportive phone call fromproducer Kathleen Kennedy that Boyega has described as frank and transparent. Following his protest speech, many filmmakers and actors responded that theywould be honored towork with him.“We got you, John,” wrote Jordan Peele.
But if anyone thought that moment reflected a newJohn Boyega, it didn’t. He’s just being heard more clearly.
“I don’t think it’sme necessarily findingmy voice. I think it’s the audience noticingme in that sense,” says Boyega. “This is kind of an eye-opener to you guys more than it is to me. I’ve kind of been about it.”