John Boyega, who starred as Finn in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, revealed that he barely could afford meeting director J.J. Abrams before he got a lead role in a galaxy far, far away.
The actor, in a panel at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo on Saturday, told podcaster Josh Horowitz that he had auditioned to the point that he felt like Abrams “kind of took away” his dignity a bit before the director asked him to meet him at a London restaurant to talk about “something important.”
“At the time I had £45 in my account. It took £33 and 83p to get to J.J. Do the math,” said Boyega, who had roughly $60 in his account and spent about $43 to get to the director, per Variety.
Boyega ― who initially said he pretended to be “busy” at an art show in nearby Greenwich, England when he got the call ― recalled being “nervous” when he walked into the restaurant.
The actor had roughly a decade of professional acting under his belt and appeared in just three films before starring in 2015′s “The Force Awakens.”
“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,’” said Boyega in comments reported by People magazine.
“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].’”
Boyega said “the moment froze” when he got the part.
“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 said.
“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 shit. You know what I’m saying?”
Over the years, Boyega has been the target of racist online attacks over his role in the franchise.
He told GQ magazine in 2020 that he felt Disney pushed Finn “to the side” in the movies after claiming that the company initially marketed his character as “much more important in the franchise.”
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He has previously indicated he has no plans to return to the franchise.
