TIME October 23, 2017
U.K.NEXT GENERATION LEADERS ▼
I
n person, John Boyega carries himself
with an assuredness that could be
mistaken for self-importance. He’s
one of those actors who look as talland sturdy in real life as they do onscreen.
He fills whatever room he happens to be in
with inviting, boisterous chatter, thanks,
no doubt, to years of voice training on the
English stage. And he’s dead certain he’s
going to be a big, big movie star.
I first meet Boyega in a cramped hallway at
ABC Studios in Manhattan in July. We barely
manage a hurried handshake as he proceeds
in Aaron Sorkin–like strides toward a nearby
stage. His publicist and his sister—who also
acts as his assistant and is Googling where
they can find British pub food in New York—
are drafting in his wake. I watch off set as
Boyega sits down with the hosts ofLive With
Kelly and Ryan, his first of three interviews
for the day. Each sit-down requires the same
thing of the 25-year-old Brit: promoting his
latest film, Kathryn Bigelow’sDetroit,about
the city’s 1967 riots, and expounding on the
state of race relations in neat, 30-second
sound bites. Naturally, interviewers also
want to ask about his other new movie,
Star Wars: The Last Jedi,coming out in
December. If the challenge of figuring out
how to discuss Black Lives Matter and
lightsabers in the same breath weighs on him,
Boyega doesn’t show it. “I see what I do in part as
creating change through art,” he tells me. “Some-
times that responsibility can feel like a burden, but
it’s not. It pushes you to find your purpose in the
world.”
Most people know Boyega as Finn, the Storm-
trooper who defects to the Rebels and helps an as-
piring Jedi (Daisy Ridley) in 2015’sStar Wars: The
Force Awakens. Boyega is confident that he can
sidestep the quagmire of franchise fame that has
kept some actors from ever eclipsing their first
blockbuster roles. So when I finally sit down with
him for lunch, I begin by asking if he’d rather fol-
low the Denzel Washington/Harrison Ford path to
stardom—bringing the same charming swagger to
every role—or if he’d prefer to go the Judi Dench/
Idris Elba route of disappearing into parts. He grins
at me and says, “I think to be a real star, you have to
do both. I’m going to do both.”
Which might seem presumptuous if Boyega
hadn’t been consistently checking off items on his
superstardom to-do list. Since his breakout role two
years ago, he has produced and starred in another
franchise film, the upcomingPacific Rim: UprisingJohn
Boyega
FROMDETROIT TOSTAR WARS, HE’S
BECOME A SUPERSTAR OF HIS OWN MAKING
By Eliana Dockterman
STAR WARS: © 2017 LUCASFILM LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; DETROIT: FRANCOIS DUHAMEL /ANNAPURNA PICTURES