Most actors say they’ll give anything for a life-changing role, and it turns out John Boyega literally almost did.
While speaking at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, Boyega shared the wild, nerve-wracking story of how he nearly emptied his bank account just to meet director J.J. Abrams and find out whether or not he landed the part of Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“I had been auditioning for so long, so I felt like he kind of took away my dignity a little bit,” Boyega told the crowd, reflecting on the relentless and exhausting audition process. Still, he was determined to play it cool when Abrams finally reached out.
“I decided to pretend as if I was busy, you know, when you just pretend that you’re busy. ‘I got other stuff to do, J.J..’ He goes, ‘Where are you?’ And I said ‘I’m at this art show in Greenwich, mate. I’m very, very busy. Where are you?’ He goes, ‘Well, I’m in Mayfair and [at a] restaurant. Need to talk to you now. And we’ll talk about something important.’ And I go, ‘Okay, okay, I’m gonna be right there.'”
There was just one problem: Boyega was nearly broke. Boyega said: “At the time I had £45 in my account. It took £33 and 83p to get to J.J. Do the math.”
Still, he made it to the meeting, and he explained: “Each step I took, I was nervous. I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ You know, J.J. is a phenomenal, nice guy, and if he was to tell me I didn’t get the part, he would still feed me.”
“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.’ 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 described the moment as “very surreal,” but it didn’t stop there. Lawrence Kasdan, the screenwriting legend behind The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, just happened to show up mid-meeting to tell him his life was about to change forever.
“That’s the Hollywood s***. You know what I’m saying?” Boyega laughed.
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