Best known for his lead role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, actor/producer John Boyega has certainly come a long way from his crime ridden South London upbringing.
Born John Adedayo Adegboyega, he grew up on a council estate in Peckham littered with guns, knives, gangs and death. After discovering his love for theater at age 9, the actor kept his passion under wraps.
“Not a lot of people knew” about his acting, a source once told the Telegraph. “Everyone else does football when they’re young,” he explained. “John didn’t play football, he was more interested in acting, so he didn’t want to make a big fuss about it.”
It was his secret hobby of acting, friends say, that kept Boyega out of trouble. “You would never see John on the street or hanging around gangs though,” Daniel Ross, a childhood neighbor told The Telegraph. “I only saw him in church or in acting school.”
“A lot of boys in his year are now in prison or dead,” Ross continued. “Everyone was going down one route towards the end of school – taking drugs, selling drugs, gangs, that sort of thing – but John went down another. I am so thankful he got out of it.”
Of course, having a good head on his shoulders could be attributed to a healthy support system at home. His father, a Nigerian, was a preacher and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. “I had a chat with John’s father when he was about 12 or 13. As long as John stayed out of trouble they were quite happy. And as John made his way, his father began to think there was some wisdom in it,” Boyega’s drama teacher told The Telegraph.
In 2014, Boyega got his big break when Lucasfilm announced he’d been cast in the role of Finn, a Stormtrooper who set out to defeat The First Order in the latest Star Wars franchise film. News of Boyega’s casting ruffled a few feathers, launching the movement #BoycottStarWars. But it was the actor’s stance on race and diversity that won many over.
“”People of color and women are increasingly being shown on-screen. For things to be whitewashed just doesn’t make sense,” Boyega told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.
““We see through the eyes of children that they’re not talking about race the way we grown folks are. They’re not talking about color or how much melanin is in someone’s skin. That should teach us something…we’ve been having a continuous struggle with idiots, and now we should just force them to understand—and I love the way I just used ‘Force’ there, by the way—just force people to see that this is the new world. There are loads of people of different shades and backgrounds. Get used to it,” he continued.
Prior to his breakout role, Boyega landed a role alongside Denzel Washington in Joe Cornish’s sci-fi thriller, Attack the Block. He was just 19-years-old. After a brief stint on Fox’s “24: Live Another Day” miniseries, Boyega went on to star in films like the Nigeria-set romance, Half of a Yellow Sun and the Audience Award winner, Imperial Dreams, at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
By subscribing, you consent to receive emails from BlackDoctor.com. You may unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service.
