John Boyega was one of the best, and ultimately worst-used, parts of the new Star Wars flicks. I liked Finn a lot, and Finn got sidelined because nobody approached that trilogy LIKE A TRILOGY and had a cohesive plan from one movie to the next. Sigh. But he’s a compelling guy — a frank-talker who has what I can only describe as a very rational air about him. Like, I appreciated this, when he talked about not being “toxic humble”:
What’s that mean? “Toxic humble, to me, is the concept of: I don’t care about the audience. It’s all about my art,” he says during our first call over Zoom in late June. “Come on, man.” He laughs. “Stop it. Like, stop. The audience participates in that, and you are selling it to them. You’ve got to step in and fill that space. You have to step into it.”
Clover Hope’s profile of him is long and detailed, including another interesting bit about how he nixed most of his team post-Star Wars because he felt like Hollywood b.s. was leeching into his life. Now I’m curious to see They Cloned Tyrone, the movie he’s promoting here, so it also did its job. A win for everyone, although… I wish he looked less wary on the cover.
