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My Opinion on the GQ Interview with John Boyega

The man has a point

By Don Anderson IIPublished 4 years ago Updated 2 years ago 8 min read
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Photo by Danny Kasirye

Before I get started on this, I want to say that you're allowed to disagree here, but consider everything I'm saying because this is all valid stuff as I am a Black man myself. Granted, I was born and raised in America, and John comes from a background that's British and Nigerian, but still, we share the same skin color.

Now, I'm a Star Wars fan, and I already heard of this man since my mom was and still is a massive fan of his movie, Attack the Block, so when I saw that he would be in a new trilogy of Star Wars movies. I knew he was going to break out. In 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had come out, but if anyone remembers the very first trailer they put out and broke the internet, the first person you saw in the movie was him.

I remember being so excited to see this because my whole life, I've never seen a black actor be a lead for a huge franchise (We have Black Panther now, but sadly, we're not sure how that will go, but I hope it keeps going) before, at least not at this magnitude. I always wanted to see a black character lead a new series of stories instead of just being a sidekick. As much as I love Lando, I'm tired of seeing him play second fiddle to Han Solo so seeing Finn as the new face of Star Wars was a breath of fresh air, especially for me, but then, the sequels happened. I loved The Last Jedi, but I hated The Rise of Skywalker because of exactly what I thought had happened, they ended up sidelining him.

In the GQ interview, he called out Disney by saying, "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." and I can't help but agree with him because he was all over the posters and the trailers with Rey, Poe, Kylo Ren, all of the characters that are part of this new trilogy of Star Wars, and I thought the stories would focus more on him, but they ended up being more about Rey (which I didn't mind), but Finn was more of an interesting character.

In the interview, he also pointed out how it was because other people have called it out, "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 fuck 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. 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." Which is true because, by the time The Last Jedi came, it focused more on Rey and Kylo Ren and how Luke Skywalker gave up on being a Jedi and his connection to the Force (say what you want about Luke in the movie, but he was NOT a ruined character). At the same time, Finn got put in the backseat with Rose and Poe trying to find a codebreaker that ultimately didn't need to be there because they would've ended up on Crait anyway.

After that, The Rise of Skywalker ended up alluding to us that Finn might be Force-sensitive, but the story doesn't go anywhere with it even though they put Finn and Poe back in the front and center while trying to deal with the connection between Rey and Kylo Ren. Real quick, I'll admit as much as I wish they did more with the new trilogy; the acting was incredible, especially from Adam Driver (Marriage Story, BlackkKlansman).

Now that Star Wars is over and the world has pretty much gone to shit, he went to a protest for the Black Lives Matter movement since the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, which I already was having my feelings about it but when I saw him on a Snapchat news feature and read about it one morning, he said everything that I was feeling and more. "We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd. We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland... for Stephen Lawrence, for Mark Duggan!" I was feeling so angry to the point where I wanted the world to burn. After seeing what happened to Jacob Blake, there are some days where I still do but it was good to see someone who shares my skin color and to not see people try to justify what happened to George Floyd especially when I saw someone who's a wrestling coach post a picture when he had a knee on his neck. At the same time, he had a thumbs up and say that having a knee on your neck doesn't kill you... "I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing! That isn't the case any more. That is never the case any more." That's exactly how it feels every day. I was so scared during that time that I didn't want to leave my house.

I've dealt with my share of racism and how people try to devalue black lives like while the protests were going on like there was a white girl I knew, we'll call her Katie, made a few posts on Snapchat when I had her as a friend about how she was calling them "riots" and she was mad about them because malls were closing since they didn't want to get looted, and she couldn't get her Disney backpack. That backpack will be there in 6 months; some Black people won't be alive by then. It's moments like these that make me agree more with Killmonger because he's the physical embodiment of the anger we feel every day as Black people, especially Black men. Granted, in the interview, Boyega talks more about what he's doing now that Star Wars is done now and all of that along with talking about his parents, his upbringing, and his experiences with racism as well but I also like that it talks about how he's a warrior, but he's a vulnerable one as well like Steve McQueen mentioned how he had all of the armor, and he just takes it off and that the man under the armor was truly revealed.

Another point that stuck out to me was he said that he's the only cast member to have a unique experience because of his race and sure, you can make an argument for Kelly Marie Tran, but she wasn't headlining the movies like he was, it's still a good point to bring up though. "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.' Nobody else in the cast had people saying they were going to boycott the movie because [they were in it]. Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, 'Black this and black that and you shouldn't be a Stormtrooper.' Nobody else had that experience. But yet people are surprised that I'm this way. That's my frustration." said Boyega. To be honest, I can't blame him for feeling this way because I'm an actor who's trying to get in the industry myself, but there's so many things that's keeping me from doing that, other than myself. I have many fears about trying to get into the industry or even while I'm in it.

One of the fears is exactly what John Boyega mentioned, you get cast in a lead role, and you're headlining a franchise, but later on, as the stories keep going, you end up getting sidelined for pretty much nothing. Another big fear I have is getting lied on about something I didn't do like maybe there's a woman I encounter who wants to use the #MeToo movement to lie and get a lot of attention for herself. At the same time, she destroys not only my career but my reputation as well. I've dealt with someone before who has lied on me but not on that level; I still lost friends in the process, though.

All in all, John Boyega has a legit point, and I think he's right in pointing out how Disney mishandled him and his character in Star Wars along with what he's been through in the middle of all of that. It was great to hear that he's still doing more acting since he was at the Black Lives Matter protest and all that, but in my eyes as a black man, I'm glad that he voiced what I've been fearing since I've been getting older and trying to get better in what I do.

I know I probably missed a few things to talk about, so here's the full interview in a video and the full article. The link to the article is underneath the video.

Link to the full article: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/john-boyega-interview-2020

Thanks to Jimi Famurewa, John Boyega, British GQ, and Danny Kasirye

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About the Creator

Don Anderson II

Movies, memoirs, music lover, graduate of community college, and university

Quiet writer but I'm sure my stories from years ago are still of interest

Tips are welcomed

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