John Boyega slams Disney for treating non-white actors badly during the 'Star Wars' series

LOS ANGELES: Actor John Boyega has called out Disney for marginalising his character in the "Star Wars" movies. In an interview with GQ magazine, the 28-year-old actor laid bare his experience on working on three "Star Wars" movies -- "The Force Awakens", "The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker". He played Finn in the trilogy.

Boyega said that though Finn had a central part in "The Force Awakens", the character did not get any nuance in subsequent movies contrary to his white co-stars.

"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," the actor said.


"Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know, f**k all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, 'I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience...' Nah, nah, nah. I'll take that deal when it's a great experience," he added.

Boyega said even his white co-stars knew that other characters in the movies were being ill-treated.

"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," he added.

About his time working on the series, the actor said he was the only cast member who had "their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race".

"Let's just leave it like that. It makes you angry with a process like that. It makes you much more militant; it changes you. Because you realise, 'I got given this opportunity but I'm in an industry that wasn't even ready for me'," Boyega said.

The actor was in news in June after he gave an impassioned speech during an anti-racism demonstration in London following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the US.