John Boyega has been outspoken about the treatment of POC characters in the Star Wars franchise. Now, the actor is calling on major studios to protect actors from racist and sexist abuse at the hands of online internet trolls. Since he began talking publicly about his experiences, he says that he has had “honest conversations” with Disney about what happened.
In an interview with Variety, Boyega sent a call out to studios to intervene against racist fandom.
“When one of your actors, especially an actor that’s so prominent in the story, is announced as part of your franchise and then it has a big racial backlash and receives abuse online and that starts to form a shadow on what is supposed to be an amazing gift, it is important for the studios to definitely lend their voice, lend their support to that and to have a sense of solidarity not just in the public eye, but on the ground on set,” Boyega said.
Boyega, who portrayed Finn in the Star Wars trilogy, discussed his experience on the franchise with GQ magazine a few months ago, saying that Disney didn’t afford his Star Wars character the luxury, level and amount of nuance that was given to the white characters
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