John Boyega has made a startling revelation on the turning point in his career during a panel at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo on April 12.
The 33-year-old British actor revealed he was down to his last savings before landing the life-changing role of Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).
Boyega, who had been acting professionally for nearly a decade, recalled the unforgettable moment director J.J. Abrams reached out via email after several rounds of auditions, as reported by PEOPLE.
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“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 [$60]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].’ “
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Boyega had only appeared in three feature films before landing his Star Wars role. He told the audience in Chicago that “the moment froze” when Abrams told him he was joining The Force Awakens’ cast.
“Like I even noticed how many sugar cubes were in this very crush little cup that was on the table. Everything felt very surreal,” he remembered.
“And then this just puts the Star Wars stamp on it: [the movie’s co-writer Lawrence Kasdan] walks out and he said, ‘Kid, this movie’s gonna change your life.’ And that’s the Hollywood s—. You know what I’m saying?”
Boyega, who starred alongside Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver in Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy from 2015 to 2019, has been candid about his mixed feelings toward the franchise.
In the recent Apple TV+ documentary Number One on the Call Sheet, Boyega reflected on his experience, criticizing the environment as having “the vibe of being in the most Whitest, elite space.”
