John Boyega Hopes That Other Black Actors Don't Get The Same Treatment As He Did By Disney

The world met John Boyega as FN-2187, a First Order stormtrooper who broke free from his mind control. A few years later, he wants to make sure we are free of our collective mental conditioning by the Hollywood machine.

Over the summer, many of us saw the impassioned speech Boyega delivered at the BLM protest in London. He was there for several hours mingling with the crowd before organizers asked if he'd say few words while they waited for their scheduled speaker to arrive. What was supposed to be a simple thank you to the organizers turned into something more. His raw honesty and tears poured out as he saw his vulnerability reflected in the eyes of the black men in the crowd. "That just made me cry because you don't get to see that," he said in his often-quoted interview with GQ.

John Boyega's Origin Story

While some may think that his decisions to reveal his true feelings about Disney's treatment of color started here, they would be wrong. It began at birth, based on factors he couldn't control, such as his skin color and others' perceptions of it. It continued with the institutions surrounding him as he grew up in South London. Then experienced it in a whole new way in the film industry.

In some cases, it was overt racism. Boyega witnessed his Pentecostal minister father get racially profiled by police on his way back from church or learning at a very young age, the reason why someone was calling his family apes and gorillas.

As he discovered his calling as an actor, he found the more sinister and covert institutional racism built into Hollywood. In September 2020, he stepped down as a global brand ambassador for Jo Malone. Boyega wrote, directed, and shot a well-received short film for the brand in 2019 when he first took on the role. It featured his old neighborhood, family, and friends. Unbeknownst to him, the perfume and candle company used his exact script but replaced him with a Chinese actor for a campaign in China. In a series of Tweets from the star, he stated:

"Their decision to replace my campaign in China by using my concepts and substituting a local brand ambassador for me, without either my consent or prior notice, was wrong. The film celebrated my personal story– showcasing my hometown, including my friends and featuring my family. While many brands understandably use a variety of global and local ambassadors, dismissively trading out one's culture this way is not something I can condone. It's back to back but I assure you this will be dealt with swiftly. I don't have time for nonsense. We press on and strong. Stay blessed people."

The Hollywood Machine

No one else has been through John Boyega's Star Wars experience. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailers first dropped, many of us were thrilled to see his handsome young face under that Stormtrooper helmet. The movie looked promising and, for the first time, inclusive.

The U.S. movie posters featured Boyega with a lightsaber. We thought we might finally get another Jedi of color. However, we discovered rather quickly that while he was featured on movie posters here. In China, he was minimized or missing altogether from the movie poster.

Worse still were the openly bigoted movie boycott campaigns. While many of us welcomed the idea of some color on our screens, a vocal segment of movie-going 'humanity' did not. Finn's role diminished to a side story as the final Skywalker trilogy rolled out its last two films. We experienced these outrages alongside Boyega. I was just happy he wasn't killed at the end.

Only recently did we come to understand just how bad it was for him on the inside of the big-ticket movie machine. Besides being exploited as some of the token BIPOC of the film franchise relegated to side quests and stories, stylists attempted to whitewash Boyega's ethnic roots press junkets. At first, he went along with it; he was excited to be there. However, his father cautioned him with the following advice, 'Don't overpay with respect. You can pay respect, but sometimes you'll be overpaying and selling yourself short."

Can it be different?

Boyega no longer sells himself short. He has come to accept the fact that he may never work with Disney again. His remarks and honesty about his experience resonate with other BIPOC actors. Can the Hollywood machine change?

Slowly but surely, it will. We need to hear and see more stories from and about the BIPOC experience. Shortly after The Last Jedi was released, Boyega went on also star in Detroit. This movie is based on the true story of the Algiers Motel incident during Detroit's 1967 12th Street Riot. This year, Boyega worked with fellow Identity School of Acting alum Letitia Wright on the five-part Steve McQueen anthology, Small Axe. This series of films focuses on black British life. It is available on Amazon Prime and worth your time.

Boyega started his own production company Upper Room too. He produced and starred in Pacific Rim: Uprising. He has also inked a deal with Netflix. Boyega and Upper Room will make non-English-language films from West and East Africa. Boyega says, "With my acting career and with my earned privilege, I'm just trying to use that to expand the opportunity, much like what we experienced with coming onset [on Small Axe]." Let us hope Disney takes notice.

Source(s): cbr.com, THR.com, GQ.com