
'I’m the only cast member whose experience of Star Wars was based on their race' - laurex
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/john-boyega-interview-2020
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syspec
Relavent paragraph,

> “I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that
> franchise based on their race,” he says, holding my gaze. “Let’s just leave
> it like that. It makes you angry with a process like that. It makes you much
> more militant; it changes you. Because you realise, ‘I got given this
> opportunity but I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me.’ Nobody
> else in the cast had people saying they were going to boycott the movie
> because [they were in it]. Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent
> to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, ‘Black this and black that
> and you shouldn’t be a Stormtrooper.’ Nobody else had that experience. But
> yet people are surprised that I’m this way. That’s my frustration.”

\--

Imagine boycotting a movie, because a character is black. Imagine messaging
someone just to spew racist comments at them.

The mind boggles

~~~
commandlinefan
Imagine being angry with everybody for something a handful of fringe lunatics
said.

~~~
rumanator
I'd be pissed off if I had to fend off systematic abuse both in my
professional and personal life because of my race.

I mean, people get pissed because passer-bys drop trash on their lawn. Now
imagine that instead of trash you get death threats and insults and
denigrating comments based on your race.

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legerdemain
Could've taken more effort to acknowledge Kelly Marie Tran's experience. She
also got tons of shit for being a person of color in Star Wars, and her
character was basically shut out of the last movie in the trilogy.

~~~
bsder
Yeah, this comment:

> “I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that
> franchise based on their race,”

Is pretty insensitive given how much absolute shit she went through.

~~~
rumanator
To be fair, this was the first time I ever heard of Kelly Marie Tran.
Meanwhile John Boyega was a household name.

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0xy
Disney removed him entirely from posters in China. Disney only pretends to
support diversity, when there's cash on the line they're just as racist as old
style Looney Tunes.

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throw7
The character and story writing for the sequels were terrible across the
board. Daisy Ridley's character was total junk. Everything was forgettable.
He's complaining about his character and look what they did to hamil??? Hamil
himself was pretty infuriated.

