First off, John Boyega is an absolute hoot! He was one of the many interviews that we did as part of a Disney press trip last week for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He had all of us bloggers in stitches. Quite the character.
I don’t know if you have seen Attack the Block, but that is where I first had seen him and loved him in that one.
The first question he was asked was what he thought the first time he got in costume, as a Stormtrooper.
To give you insight into how the whole interview went, his first reply was “I did like the way my glutes looked”.
It was a good experience, I mean, because something like that makes it so real that you’re involved in this universe. I mean, when you put on the costume, it’s the final step of becoming a character. You put on the costume, and you see yourself as a character that isn’t you, and so that is something that was quite profound.
What about holding a light saber for the first time, what was that experience like? John Boyega told us a bit about it from his point of view:
That was a good day. It was in the trailers, in the ruins in the castle, and there are these kids who actually make the technology for the lightsaber, who are quite young. They brought it in this blackened case, opened the case and I picked up the ightsaber. I was like “just with a lightsaber, ignore me.” People just look at me and stared, and you can see how holding the lightsaber captures the imagination of onlookers. I was definitely egotistical that day.
You know that scene in the trailer that you have been seeing, with him running away from an explosion, we talked a bit about that… that was a REAL explosion!
That was me. That was alllllll me. It was fantastic. With explosions like that there are health and safety regulations, but while we were on set I don’t think I expected them to be that big. I remember J.J. coming and saying ‘Okay John, we are going to do this scene and just run. Do the dialogue, and yeah, have fun. Cameras. Action.’ I’m running and I look at Daisy, and I see that everyone is backing up. J.J. is going further and further away. They put a plastic cloak over the camera. People are putting goggles on, and hats. They called action and I realized why. If you watch the scene, I’m legit freaking out. I’m like ‘nah, hell no. I’m too young to die like this.’ But it was definitely fun.
In real life what color lightsaber would you have? In classic comic style John Boyega replied:
My lightsaber would be rainbow colored so they’d know I was there. I’d be like ‘Woohoooo, it’s about to go down.’ I’d be all over the galaxy – switching, interchangeable. Confuse them a little bit with a flash mode and disco mode. I’m about peace, I’m not trying to get into fights with no one.
When asked about whether he played with a lightsaber as a kid himself, he did say that he had. But then he went on to say he wouldn’t be like Luke though, more like Han.
If any of us were in the Star Wars universe, we wouldn’t be Luke. We wouldn’t be trying to fight against. I’m trying to live. I’m trying to be Han. I’m trying to make money and trying to survive. The only reason I would be brave would be to save my own life. I’m not trying to do any of that stuff.
We asked about the relationship between him and Harrison Ford as well as Han Solo and John’s character Finn in the movie…
We formed a really interesting relationship that really has influenced the Finn and Han relationship. The first thing I said to Harrison when I met him, I walked up to him and he said “Hey, I’m Harrison Ford” and I said “you look good man” and he said “what did you expect?” From then on, that influenced the way in which Finn sees Han. Finn is like ‘Yeah man, Gramps is cool’ and Han is like ‘I’m Han Solo, have respect.’ and there’s no respect what so ever. But, I think Han sees a young Han in Finn, so they form this bond
I can’t wait to see more about this bond and John’s character! I am hoping that some of John’s personal character and pizazz shines through too as he was a pure joy to chat with. I swear, I don’t think I have ever laughed so much in a press interview.
Lastly John was asked in his opinion, what makes The Star Wars Movies and story so timeless.
I just think it’s the continuous dialog between fans. Fans have the ability to make a whole press conference on probably two minutes worth of footage, ‘who shot first?’ That was a few seconds. There’s a whole debate about that and that keeps fans engaged even when the movies aren’t there. There’s only been six films, but if you look at the fandom, it reflects as if there’s been twenty. I think it’s because there are different ways in which you can experience Star Wars.
You don’t necessarily have to watch the films. You can just have the merchandise and know it from there. You can be a Star Wars fan and I think that’s different than any other property.
Make sure you head to the movies this weekend to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens!! I have my tickets for Thursday night 🙂
(Photo Credit to Mom Start)
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