John Boyega made headlines earlier this year with a powerful Black Lives Matter speech back in June, where he addressed concerns that speaking out may affect his career. Months later, the actor says he’s even more fixated on fighting to secure working environments “as good as possible for everyone.”
In a new interview with Indiewire to promote his role in the third installment of Steve McQueen‘s “Small Axe” anthology, “Red, White and Blue,” Boyega looked back on his Black Lives Matter speech from earlier this summer, and whether that could alter his career. “Definitely, I still think about that possibility,” Boyega explained before adding that having acted in big blockbusters doesn’t exempt him from being blacklisted. “People say things like, ‘But you’ve been in this Hollywood movie and that other thing…’ But it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have career longevity. Anything can happen.”
“You learn so much about an experience and it definitely affects the way you do work, the kind of conversations you have prior to joining any project, I’m learning,” Boyega continues. “And also, it just helps with what kind of industry I’d like to see. I can’t merely point out the issues and not be doing real, significant, proactive work. So I’m more fixated on the work side by making sure that these kinds of environments are — especially where I am involved — as good as possible for everyone.”
After his speech in June, Boyega once again made headlines when he spoke out against Disney‘s treatment of actors of color in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy and how their characters got much muddier arcs. “You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all.”