“Don’t put me in any of that”: the roles John Boyega flat-out refused to play
If you sat down to watch Joe Cornish’s excellent debut film Attack the Block in 2011, you probably didn’t predict that two of its stars would go on to have major roles in two of the largest science fiction franchises in history.
Jodie Whittaker, who plays a nurse called Samantha, would go on to play the first female incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, and as for John Boyega, the actor who played teenage gang leader Moses, he would find himself at the heart of a new Star Wars trilogy.
Playing Finn, a former Stormtrooper who defects to the good side, was easily the highlight of Boyega’s career up to that point. He had been struggling to pay the bills prior to getting the gig, with his movie roles including a few low-level dramas, while his TV work encompassed shows like Law & Order: UK and 24: Live Another Day.
Although, according to the star himself, this limited filmography was actually on purpose, as he revealed, speaking to The Independent, that he had very specific boundaries for himself after he left drama school. He explained to his friend and agent, Femi Oguns, that there were certain things he would do and certain things he definitely wouldn’t do.
“Not to toot my own horn, but I had strict rules for Femi when I first signed with him,” he said, “I want something that can be relatable, but unique. It has to have a spin on it… Don’t put me in no EastEnders, don’t put me in no The Bill, don’t put me in any of that.”
For those who don’t live in the UK, EastEnders and The Bill were two staples of British TV in the noughties, with the former a long-running soap opera set in London that is on to this day, while the latter is a police procedural that stopped broadcasting in 2010.
Not many actors who start in EastEnders go on to find worldwide fame, the primary exception being Himesh Patel, who appeared in 556 episodes, and as for The Bill, that’s a whole different story. David Tennant, Sean Bean, Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Andy Serkis and more can be found in the show’s vast billing archives; it’s actually a joke how many famous people appeared on The Bill before they hit the big time.
This might seem like arrogance on Boyega’s part, as every actor has to pay their dues with small roles before they can even think about becoming a star. Everyone else had to slug it out on shitty weekly TV before they made it to Hollywood, but then, there’s something to be said for his confidence, for self-belief is one of the most important traits an actor can possess.
If you don’t think you’re better than EastEnders or The Bill, then nobody else will, and Boyega has never been afraid to speak his mind and stand up for himself, an attitude that clearly goes all the way back to his early days, so while it was a risk to turn down what would have been an easy payday, but you can’t say it didn’t work out in the end.
