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John Boyega says non-white actors 'pushed to the side' in Star Wars by Disney

IDKFA

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
"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," he told GQ.

"What do you want me to say?" Boyega continued. "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."

I admit that Finn was underused in EPIX, but he was a major role in VII and VIII (even if the casino planet section was gash).

Do you agree or disagree with John?

www.bbc.co.uk

Star Wars: John Boyega says non-white actors 'pushed to the side' by Disney

Actor John Boyega says the latest Star Wars film marginalised non-white characters like his.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
The idea of an imperial defector is interesting, at least by star wars standards. You could explore his inner conflict at having to kill former teammates. The mistrust shown to him by his newfound resistance allies. The technical expertise by which he is able to operate imperial weapons & vehicles.

This was all abandoned in favor of making another black sidekick who makes jokes ayyyy lmao
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
I agree that he got the shaft but lets be real nobody had nuance, especially not Ridley lol, and plenty of white actors were wasted too.
 
IDKFA

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Grinchy said:
The Finn character should have been the main character.

But he's not doing himself any favors. Not only will no Disney or Disney-owned studio ever hire him again, but others may be wary as well. There's a reason actors very rarely shit talk their projects.
Click to expand...

Agreed. After TFA, I was sure Finn was not only a lead character with Ray, but also convinced he would be trained in the force, but he was wasted in VIII and criminally underused in IX.

However, I don't think Disney did this on purpose because John is black and I don't think his character story arc would have changed if Finn was white.
 
-Arcadia-

-Arcadia-

Banned
I don't think this 'is wacism!', as much as it is competing creative visions, a legitimately retarded director, awful management, and a complete clusterfuck in trying to unite everything.

If JJ had made the whole trilogy, or someone with respect for Star Wars had made the middle leg, I imagine Finn would have been just as important as he was in the first one.
 
Grinchy

Grinchy

Banned
IDKFA said:
Agreed. After TFA, I was sure Finn was not only a lead character with Ray, but also convinced he would be trained in the force, but he was wasted in VIII and criminally underused in IX.

However, I don't think Disney did this on purpose because John is black and I don't think his character story arc would have changed if Finn was white.
Click to expand...
For sure. Boyega comes across to me like one of those black guys who didn't find out he was "oppressed" until social media told him that he was, and then he went full blast with it.

So many people I went to high school with and knew for a while after high school turned into those types. Grew up more wealthy than most whites in the area, had a great childhood and life, but then by 30+ years old, discovered they were actually victims of racism all along! They just didn't know it until now!
 
#Phonepunk#

#Phonepunk#

Banned
kunonabi said:
I agree that he got the shaft but lets be real nobody had nuance, especially not Ridley lol, and plenty of white actors were wasted too.
Click to expand...
yes but he had a character explain why slavery is bad to HIM.

to an ex storm trooper!

he is supposed to have been kidnapped from his family as a child. he was a child slave effectively. yet he is lectured to for seemingly no reason.

how did this person raised from childhood under slavery conditions learn about slavery? by watching a white chimney sweep get yelled at by an alien.

yes it is that fucking dumb.

because Rian Johnson is a lazy racist fuck who didn't know what to do with Finn and only cared about his dumb Luke-Rey-Kylo story.
 
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Fbh

Fbh

Member
Eh, you can make everything about race if you try hard enough.

What happened to his and other characters could be the result of:

A) Shitty writing, a complete lack of planning for the trilogy and the project being handed over to multiple people with different creative visions and almost complete freedom to do whatever they want with the story
B) Disney intentionally sidelining characters because they aren't white.

What do you think is more likely?
 
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Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
IDKFA said:
I admit that Finn was underused in EPIX, but he was a major role in VII and VIII (even if the casino planet section was gash).

Do you agree or disagree with John?
Click to expand...
Being a major role is different than what Boyega is talking about. Boyega cites nuance, which I take to mean a character arc and development. Finn had a shitty character arc.

Rian basically fucked up everyone's character arcs from what was set up in TFA because subverted expectations and kill the past.

kunonabi said:
I agree that he got the shaft but lets be real nobody had nuance, especially not Ridley lol, and plenty of white actors were wasted too.
Click to expand...
Yes and no. I think Boyega is limiting his analysis to main characters, of which he's the only black one. I think that him incorporating race into his analysis does downplay the shafting of other characters too, to your point.

However, it's a clever persuasive gambit on Boyega's part because Boyega understands the SW fanbase, and the racial angle might be enough to convince the more SJW-minded fans when they otherwise might not have defended him because protecting the integrity of their franchise is more important.
 
#Phonepunk#

#Phonepunk#

Banned
i always thought it was utter bullshit that Finn had to keep proving himself to be a good guy, when the very first thing he does in the movie is turn good.

all during TFA i was thinking "wait, they keep putting this on Finn, but why is Rey doing any of this? She has never "joined the good guys", she never had to "prove" she was on the good guys side? it was just, oh yeah, she is in a movie, the lightsaber calls to her, anything she does it ok, but this Finn guy, what is he up to?

really rubbed me the wrong way. i felt like his arc was closely completely when he stands up to Kylo Ren and has a lighstaber slice his spine. like, if you didn't know if he was on the "good guys side" after that, what the fuck are you thinking? yet Rian Johnson just hit the reboot button.

dude was sliced in the spine by a lightsaber yesterday? fuck it, he wakes up, falls on the floor. look at the funny black man slipping. "Oh you want to go on a journey to help your friend? we will tase your ass and drag you away!" yes the bipolar militant extremist Asian will keep the cowardly black man in line. got it, Rian! you are so woke!

ELZQGGYWwAEpvGM.jpg


i thought, holy shit, you have to be shitting me with this. by the time they got to Canto Bight i decided i won't be seeing the next movie. what a waste of time.
 
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iconmaster

iconmaster

Banned
Rentahamster said:
However, it's a clever persuasive gambit on Boyega's part because Boyega understands the SW fanbase, and the racial angle might be enough to convince the more SJW-minded fans when they otherwise might not have defended him because protecting the integrity of their franchise is more important.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm inclined to blame confused leadership and the lack of a clear plan for the trilogy rather than racism, but Boyega is smart to push this narrative. (And he may genuinely believe it, to be fair.)
 
S

slugbahr

Unconfirmed Member
Tldr ... i didn't enjoy it when I got by pushed to the side by that lady. Asian, I think. Definitely annoying.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
His character was terrible, not enough serious\epic and surely not funny at all, maybe that's why they put him on a secondary role...
 
Goro Majima

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
Felt like JJ intended for Finn to be a Jedi judging how that was weirdly shoehorned into Episode 9 but RJ fucked up the hand off and ignored that obvious plot point.

Would have loved to see Luke Skywalker, Finn, and Rey all being bad ass Jedi together (I guess Leia too but Carrie Fisher's passing would have killed that idea).

Cunth said:
So whose side will the reee types take? Victim of systemic racism Boyega, or worlds greatest director Rian Johnson...
Click to expand...

I can assure you it will be Rian Johnson because TLJ is a sacred cow to them
 
Stiflers Mom

Stiflers Mom

Banned
He was definitely extremely underutilized after TFA. He had a main role in that first movie of the trilogy, and afterwards was relegated to NPC status and a shitty love story with the most hated character in Star Wars history next to Jar Jar fucking Binks.

If I were him, I'd be angry too.
 
BaneIsPain

BaneIsPain

Member
Can we erase the disney trilogy? Bringing a bad memory.

yeah, finn should have been in a bigger role than a side kick.
 
xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Member
I don't know what he's trying to accomplish with the accusations. Other studios will more likely stay away from him now and it's not like he was an established actor before Star Wars.
 
Kenpachii

Kenpachii

Member
Old cast was the main character of the series. Later on they moved it towards bootleg luke skywalkerina and some bootleg han solo that was shared with ( indian guy /john ) and bootleg darthbitch that all really had no charisme on the screen even remotely.

The black guy was interesting because of the start where he starts the journey off however later on it felt like he simple had no room in the story anymore.

I also don't know why boyega is so mad about it. Because of the movie he got world recognision also made some money on the side and he can branch of from that. Instead he's bitching like a little bitch acting like he for some reason should be one of the major characters of the series while he was never going to be that. And kills any movie contract in the future as result.
 
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O-N-E

O-N-E

Member
This comment section is fucking weird, I've gotta say.

Boyega is right. The initial marketing for the first movie had him front and centre. They made it look like he was gonna be the main dude and his initial story started out intriguingly. Then it turns out nope, Rey's the one.

All he said in that quote is to not make it seem like non-White characters are gonna be a big deal in the story and then back-pedal when things are heating up.

Disney is fake-woke. When it counts, they can't commit.

Respect to Boyega for calling them out. He's right. It was obvious what they did and it was bullshit.
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
It should have been obvious to him. When you read your script and 90% of your lines are "Woah!" (or its derivative) with the most stereotypical accent, you should have known what was coming.

Seriously, when he defected the first thing he did was slaughter a ton of his former battle brothers yelling "Woah! Did you see that?", if that doesn't make you cry out of sheer embarrassment then I don't know what will.
 
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Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
i don't think it's a race thing, just another poorly written character without adequate arc - thing

this is what happens when you write to subvert, you lose sight of characterization and force contrivances on audiences until you hit a literal brick wall in the final chapter where rey flings you away to fight her metaphysical lover

tlou2 had a similar (albeit different) problem
 
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Dural

Dural

Member
I loved Finn in TFA, his character had so much potential, then TLJ came out and everything went to shit. He needs to complain about Rian Johnson, if anything, for ruining his, and everyone elses, arc.
 
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