Then, mid-waffle, Orlando Bloom
dropped by. Just unannounced, like it
was a regular thing. ‘I’m not used to any
of that stuff, hanging out with Iron Man
on a day-to-day basis.’
It was the best-case scenario for
someone seeking a crash course in fame.
He’s getting advice from one of the most
famous actors in the world, someone who,
against all odds, has wound up solid and
sane, and suddenly a second one shows
up. So while Boyega had the opportunity,
there was something kind of crazy he
wanted to ask these huge celebrities about.
‘Women. Women, women, women.’
But this wasn’t some gross thing where
a nascent star asks reformed hounds how
to assemble a Pussy Posse. It was more
not going to be his life. So, how do you
find that kind of partnership when you’re
famous enough to casually arrange
a mentorship with Robert Downey Jr?
Boyega is borderline wistful as he imagines
this ideal woman, equally comfortable in
Peckham and Holly wood, going through
tough times and dancing on red carpets.
‘It’s nice to survive with your companion
by your side. I’m sure it’s a good thing,’ he
says. ‘But I’ve never experienced it. And
people advise you as a celebrity, “Make
sure you get someone who doesn’t care
about your career.” I disagree,’ Boyega told
Downey and Bloom. They concurred:
‘She has to care about it to understand it.’JJ ABRAMS KNEW he was going to
give Boyega the part. He’d known all along.
But Boyega had no idea how this meeting
was going to go. There was no way Abrams
had called Boyega to tell him he didn’t get
the role, right? Not after the ‘interminable
auditioning’, months of work, returning to
the Disney lot six, seven, eight times. On
the other hand, Boyega thought, if he’s
gonna let me off, he would want to do it
face-to-face. Or perhaps he would offer me
another role or a walk-on. Would Boyega
have done that? ‘I’m not watching the next
man do it with a front-row seat,’ he says.
Abrams had loved Boyega since he saw
him in Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, in
which Boyega plays a teenager defending
a housing project from space invaders.
And then Abrams asked him to be ‘the
star of Star Wars’. This is the moment when
the actor jumps up and down and gives his
new boss a hug. But Abrams kept talking.
He began a cautionary speech laying out
that this role, in addition to altering
Boyega’s entire career, forever, would
occasionally kind of suck, forever. ‘The job
isn’t just to be an actor in a movie when
you’re doing something like Star Wars,’
Abrams told Boyega. ‘It’s a significant
lifetime commitment to this thing.’ Did
Boyega understand that this would be
a load he would carry for as long as he
lived? Had Abrams mentioned that Boyega
would never, ever escape Star Wars? ‘It
could be an enormous burden.’gentlemanly than that. He was asking
a man seemingly in a blissful marriage
(Downey) and one of the dudes who
inspired Katy Perry’s latest album (Bloom)
about relationships. ‘My mom and dad
have been together for 25 years, so that’s
the system I will follow,’ Boyega says. On
the other hand, his parents met in Nigeria,
immigrated to London, and brought up
three children in a small apartment while
making a modest living preaching and
aiding the disabled. Boyega knows that’sEidos suit. Thom
Browne shirt.
Alexander Olch tie.
Georg Jensen watch70 GQ.CO.ZA OCTOBER 2017
‘I’M A BOY FROM PECKHAM AND
I’M IN A STAR WARS MOVIE!’