John Boyega made headlines earlier this year by calling out Disney/Lucasfilm over how diversity was handled in Star Wars and it seems like his actions have had an effect.
In case you missed it, Boyega caused a stir a few months ago when he blasted Disney for favouring his white co-stars during his time on the Star Wars film.
The actor definitely didn’t mince words at the time, telling GQ: “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.”
Not only was this something of a rare move since we don’t usually see actors ragging on Disney quite like this, this call out took place during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests and so it got a lot of attention at the time.
But it seems like Boyega’s actions had some an effect as he told The Hollywood Reporter that it led to an “honest” and “transparent” conversation with a high-level Disney executive.
“It was a very honest, a very transparent conversation,” Boyega says. “There was a lot of explaining on their end in terms of the way they saw things.”
“They gave me a chance also to explain what my experience was like. I’d hope that me being so open with my career, at this stage, would help the next man, the guy that wants to be the assistant DOP, the guy that wants to be a producer. I hope that the conversation is not such a taboo or elephant in the room now, because someone just came and said it.”
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It certainly seems like tensions are cooling somewhat between Boyega and Disney, so much so that the actor seems like he’s at peace with what’s happened.
Here’s hoping his calling out of Star Wars and Disney will have some sort of lasting impact because to backslide now would be incredibly frustrating.
Check out John Boyega talking about his post-Star Wars life and Black Lives Matter with GQ:
