#john boyega's family is nigerian????

[morethanonepage]

@spacejasontodd replied to your photo “There's nothing more racist than assuming a white girl is latinx,...”

Also how the fuck is Rey Polish with a name like that, I digress!

in this fic her last name is “solana” so like who even knows what’s going on here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[loki-zen]

Since at least one (1) person expressed an interest, disconnected thoughts on the vast gulf between the Discourse about media production and the Industry, part 1 of ?

Every actor I have known who is anything other than unambiguously white or unambiguously black (which includes some actors who would describe themselves as black) has counted it as a bonus and a professional necessity that they are able to be cast as a variety of ethnicities.

My good friend Mickey (pseudonym) who I worked with a lot back in the day used the memorable coinage “ambiguously brown”. Some actors might choose to list their actual ethnicities on their acting CV, although often they don’t; people with names like ‘Balvinder Patel’ have told me that they assume that if a director wants that information they can intuit it from their name!

It was more common among actors I know to list a ‘Casting type’, which can be multiple things and at any rate is typically derived from a combination of physical appearance and e.g. accents that you’re good at. Mickey would list ‘Caribbean/British Caribbean’, which is his heritage (his family are Jamaican and Irish), but he wouldn’t look askance at a British Nigerian actor like John Boyega listing that, so long as he could do the accent.

And Mickey also listed ‘Arab/Middle Eastern’ on his casting type, as did Balvinder! You list anything you think a casting director might consider plausible!

(Plus - at least at the time - roles that were meant to be people from Muslim-majority countries outstripped the supply of actors of those specific ethnicities. According to Riz Ahmed this is because on average parents of British Muslims are more disapproving of their kids and especially their daughters going into acting.)

It also wasn’t accepted wisdom (this is between 5-15 years ago I’m really talking about; the impression is that it was harder a decade or so before) that not being white necessarily made it harder to get cast in things.

After all - much if not most stage casting is colourblind in one direction, which is to say you’ll cast a black Juliet or Julius Caesar but not a white Othello or Aaron, and to quote the guy who played Aaron in the production of Titus that I was in, “sooner or later somebody will be doing Othello.” (Dom’s implication being that if a theatre outside of London is doing Othello, he has the opportunity to audition for a title role with much less than the usual competition.)

Which of course isn’t to say that there’s not a likely-justified perception that Dom might be less likely to get King Lear than the equally* talented actor playing Titus, but he doesn’t have zero chance of getting it (it really depends on the director), and Titus Guy certainly doesn’t have better odds of getting a given Lear/Prospero/etc than Dom has of getting a given Othello.

Which, like, isn’t a good state of affairs necessarily, but on the individual level a lot of actors would choose ‘can fairly reliably get a lead role but it’s always the same one’ over the alternative.

*I mean I’d say slightly less but Dom and I share certain not-universal sensibilities about the nature of good acting

It should be noted that there’s no Othello for black women. Gender is a much bigger factor than race in terms of how easy it is for you to get work (both at all, and in leading roles which pay more and get you valuable exposure and reputation and CV material), but I don’t hear anything like the Discourse about it!

Another thing not many people realise is that on the stage/adjacent things (at least in Europe) it’s actually still pretty normal and unremarkable to cross-cast white people here and there - not really as black people but certainly as Arabs and Roma and sometimes East Asians and in American plays with Latinos in them.

Sometimes this genuinely results from a literal inability to get a person of the appropriate ethnicity to audition for the role. I couldn’t say how often this is the case - only that I know it has been, and it has been somewhere as big-name as Disneyland Paris. (I knew a former Jasmine. They were also very clearly having difficulty casting Tiana based on their ads - and I cannot imagine that they’ve often had an actual Native American either; I think they at least shoot for Ambiguously Brown.) Edit: and also, yeah the implication with the bit about Latinos is that there really really aren’t many of them here; I knew one Brazilian actress and that was basically it, but people still want to put on West Side Story. These days high schools just cast whoever and professional casts tend to go with people with Tomato Europe or ‘black Welsh’ (olive-skinned, dark-haired people of Celtic extraction like my family pretended to be) kinda looks.

Another disconnect between ethnicity and casting type: Mickey and I have the same number of white grandparents. My casting type is pretty much ‘unambiguously white.’

[urcadelimabean]

I had a dream that John Boyega was my boyfriend and not from a not just Nigerian but also a Black Czechoslovakian immigrant family (why lol) and we were ~daaaating~ except then *I* committed a minor driving infraction (go me) and was pulled over by cops who tried to trump up charges to get John sent to jail for three years because of some name inconsistency on his papers where he had either Nigerian or Czech family names. Horrible shit. Racism is affecting the life of my fictional husband-to-be and our unborn fictional interracial child. (I uh, don't even want to have kids which makes the dream stranger. Haven't had a dream about John Boyega in.....years? Still think he's super hot but like can I have a thirst dream about the sex and romance instead of an ominous one about systemic violence? No?)

[uomo-accattivante]

"To think that Armenian people are in jeopardy once again is heartbreaking." ~ Oscar Isaac

Cardi B, John Boyega, Cher and Kim Kardashian are also speaking out on two international crises: fighting that threatens a majority Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh and police brutality in Nigeria.

While scores of major players in Hollywood keep their focus on the U.S. election, a number of celebrities are spotlighting two crises overseas: one, the armed conflict between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh; the other, protests against ongoing police brutality in Nigeria.

In Africa's most populous country, young Nigerians have been out in force, marching against police shootings in their oil-rich country in what is known as the #EndSars movement, a push to do away with the government's Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). In 1992 SARS was established to fight armed robbery in the capital city of Lagos. The group was later folded into Nigeria's national police to combat armed criminals, but according to Amnesty International, they started violating Nigerian citizens' rights, targeting mostly young people.

On Oct. 20, in a violent response by the government, at least 12 Nigerians were killed by soldiers during a peaceful protest at the Lekki Toll Gate, according to Amnesty International. D.J. Switch was livestreaming the protests on her Instagram page when the shooting at the Toll Gate happened. "I'm heartbroken. There was no warning. We just heard gunshots and the soldiers came in guns blazing. They were just shooting like we were goats and chickens," she told CNN.

Among the stars who have spoken out about the lethal crackdowns are Rihanna (who tweeted, "My heart is broken for Nigeria"), Cardi B (“If your people are complaining and are tired about the police, then bro, get that sh** fixed,” she said in a video on her social media), Beyoncé and John Boyega.

Filmmaker Nzinga Christine Blake tells THR that "it's wonderful to see that Hollywood is [standing] in solidarity with a new generation that is calling for an end to police brutality — just like the social justice movement we are seeing in the United States. This isn't a political issue — this is a human issue." And Queen Sono star Pearl Thusi has been sharing pictures and videos of the brutality in Nigeria on her Instagram page. She recently wrote, "NIGERIA: PEACEFUL PROTESTORS SHOT BY THE POLICE! Please share this clip and any clip of dj switch recorded LIVE to ALL AND ANY media outlets and people of influence who can help spread the word and make a difference!!!"

In early October, the protesters released a list of five demands that includes immediate release of all arrested protesters; an independent body to investigate and prosecute police misconduct within 10 days of a claim; and "justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families."

At the same time, stars continue to bring attention to the strife between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh (which broke out Sept. 27), where an estimated half of the population has been displaced by fighting that has taken the lives of hundreds to perhaps 5,000 people, depending on reports. The area's historical name is Artsakh, and around 150,000 ethnic Armenians populate it. Although it's recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan, ethnic Armenians control it. So far, a string of ceasefires has failed to halt fighting.

Armenian American celebrities Cher and Kim Kardashian West have been vocal supporters of Armenia and its people amid the conflict — calling on the U.S. to intervene — with Kardashian West pledging $1 million to the humanitarian Armenia Fund. Eric Esrailian — a producer of the 2016 film The Promise (which looks at the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century) and founder of The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA — tells THR that "the situation is unfortunately becoming a humanitarian catastrophe for Armenians in this region." Says The Promise star Oscar Isaac, "To think that Armenian people are in jeopardy once again is heartbreaking."

In recent days, Armenian Americans have continued to hold large demonstrations in Los Angeles in support of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. “I am devastated to hear about what has been happening to Armenians right now. Dr. Esrailian and his team fought so hard to get the Armenian Genocide recognized around the world using The Promise, and it is horrible to think that Armenians may be in danger of another genocide. I hope government leaders in the world use their influence to prevent further tragedy and loss of life," actress and activist Laura Dern tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Esrailian hopes for a peaceful resolution that recognizes the right to self-determination for the Armenian people of Artsakh. "This region has been kind of an ancestral homeland for Armenians for literally thousands of years," he says.

A version of this story first appeared in the Nov. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

###

[plussizeappreciationfics]

OS: Dangerous meddling

Requested?    Yes  l   No

By: //

Pairing: John Boyega  x African/Black plus sized reader

Summary: Some dangerous meddling results in John’s life being on the line

Warning(s): language, crying

Word count: 2,607

Picture(s) found on: Pinterest/Google

“I just find it weird that your ex knows where we were yesterday while celebrating our one year anniversary, [Y/N]!” John loudly expressed before rolling his eyes when you shrugged your shoulders in frustration again. “I don’t know either, I haven’t talked to Joe in three years!”.

Your boyfriend let out a low hum and just shook his head, looking at you sitting on his couch.What was supposed to be your amazing anniversary dinner had turned into your ex popping up with an engagement ring and almost fighting John to “prove his love to you”. The three of you got kicked out of the fancy restaurant and John couldn’t even look at you the rest of the evening.

You ended up sleeping in the guest bedroom but not being able to close your eyes for a split second as this was the second time your ex had somehow found out where you lived and where exactly you were out and about with John. And the weirdest thing was that he appeared always after you’d visit your maybe soon-to-be mother in law as she’d try to make you break up with John.

 He had explained many times that he preferred letting his mother know about his relationships once they turned serious because she had the tendency to become very overprotective and find a reason to dislike any female he brought home to her. Having gotten the heads up was nice because once you met John’s mother, she immediately went for the kill and voiced how she hated the way you dressed, spoke and just literally existed in this world. His father had to actually pull his wife to the side and remind her that she was doing way too much for having met you just a minute ago.

You tried your hardest to get her to like you because you loved your own family and wanted to start one with John once he’d put a ring on your finger. You had no idea what you had done wrong but ever since he had introduced you to his mother three weeks ago, your life had turned into a dramatic soap opera.

The fact that she hated you for no real reason slowly began to get to your head and you were currently at a state where you avoided visiting her and John having to beg you to join him as he wanted to make peace in between the two most important women in his life.

“Babe...Please believe me. I’m just so done with this shit. We were supposed to celebrate our love and discuss or future together but instead it all ended up in a shit show” you begged and let out a tired sigh. You hated feeling so distant from your lover as you wanted nothing more for him to hug you, kiss you and take you to his bed and makeup for the time you had lost the day before.

“I believe you, my Queen...I’m just afraid that you’ll leave me for Joe. I was projecting and I wholeheartedly apologize for that” and with that you quickly stood up and rushed over to your boyfriend who already was grinning at you, nothing but pure love and joy sparkling in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around your thick waist and slowly inhaled your delicate scent. This was one of the many reasons why you loved John so much, the two of you never raised your voices at one another. Always talked every issue through like adults and knew when to put your pride and ego aside and just know that you had messed up wanted to do better next time.

The world stopped for a moment as you felt safe and at home again in his arms. Your heart fluttered in your chest as your stomach churned in delight, your body mind and soul loving every sensation you felt when being so close to the man who had your whole heart. You hated arguing with him but making up was the best part of it all as you always grew closer as a couple and evolved individually.

“I love you” John gently whispered while smiling down at you, his gorgeous face making you copy his actions. “ I love you too”. Seconds later, your plump lips met in a tender kiss that soon enough developed into something more needy and heated. Your boyfriend didn’t hesitate to pick you up and slowly walk you out of his living room while his lips continued to leave you breathless and craving for his body moving on top of yours.

~~~

“Mom, why would you do that?!”  John desperately demanded  while his mother was held her back by the shoulders by him, she huffed in anger while glaring daggers at you. You stood frozen on the spot, your newly bought blouse covered in red wine and your eyes staring back into her hatred filled ones. Grace, John’s sister was trying her best to save your blouse with a wet kitchen cloth while apologizing in the name of her mother, the anxiety and nervousness radiating off her like direct sun rays.

“I really don’t know what has gotten into her, [Y/N]. Please forgive her, I know deep down that she likes you but I can’t explain you why she’s acting this way” her words weren’t helping you at all, only increased your mind into thinking of different scenarios to kill her off. You weren’t a violent person but also didn’t let anyone disrespect you like that, especially when you had been nothing but kind and respectful in the first place.

“Your hand slowly balled into a fist and your body began to shake, the pent up emotions of the shit show slowly getting to you. You had spent hours thinking of ways that you somehow had done something bad to Abigail but couldn’t think of something. At the very first encounter, you had bought her some beautiful African Wax Print fabrics that John had highly approved of. He loved that you knew your African roots and ancestry and were able to relate to him in many ways. 

You had thought that the beautiful fabrics would make Abigail see that John had gotten himself a good woman as you had continued to introduce yourself and let her know about your job and family a little bit. But the meeting ended in her rolling her eyes at every word that left your lips and her sending you back home with the fabrics.

“Get this woman out of my house!”  Abigail suddenly yelled, making everyone jump. The rest of John’s siblings were watching the whole scene from a safe distance, away from the kitchen as they all feared their mother when she was angry.

“ What have I done to you?!”  you yelled back. 

John’s eyes popped out in surprise as he could see that you had reached your breaking point. Tears were filling your eyes as you began to huff and not let them cascade down your face. Grace threw the cloth to the side and hugged you tightly as the two of you actually had become close friends. She had been your shoulder to cry on whenever you and John were arguing about their mother. He often tried to excuse her behavior but also couldn’t dismiss your feelings and felt stuck, you felt like he was on his mother’s side that hurt like a bitch.

“I-” you took a deep breath and continued to glare at Abigail, “I have done everything to get you to like me! But you still find a new way to disrespect me EVERY TIME you see me! How can it be that you’re quick to criticize everything I do but can’t even tell me or John why you actually hate me??”, your words left her speechless, the kitchen becoming silent as no one spoke a word.

Your boyfriend slowly let go of his mom and rushed over to you, Grace stepping aside and watching in sadness how the strongest person she knew was breaking down. John’s heart was aching in his chest as he realized that he taken the wrong side. His mother had been nothing but disrespectful and mean to you and he couldn’t say why. Had he asked his mother why she hated your guts?

Yes.

Did he get a proper answer?

Nope. Only more “reasons” to break up with you as you were “nothing but pure evilness”. She always had so much to say before concluding her rants with how much she loved her son and didn’t want him to settle down with the wrong woman.

The only problem was that this behavior was nothing new to the Nigerian actor. Abigail would always let her claws out and try to cut any woman he introduced to her. They either were “money hungry” or “clout chasers” and that was the reason why he waited until he was serious with someone before he’d let them meet his mother.

“I am so sorry, babe”  he apologized in your ear and hugged you tight, frowning when you clung onto his broad shoulders and let out a shaky sigh. You clenched your eyes shut and tried to calm down at his touch, a part of you being very disappointed at yourself as your mother had taught you to never raise your voice at an elder. But fuck it, respect had to be earned, not demanded.

“See how she’s trying to break this family apart?! Leave her, John before she’ll get access to your money and spend it all!” Abigail yelled out and tried to charge towards you but her husband rushed in to stop her from reaching you.

“That’s enough”  he calmly said and turned to you, shaking his head in disappointment. “ Take her home, son. Your mother and I have some things to talk about”  he then turned to you and gave you a sympathetic smile “I’m sorry, [Y/N]”. With that, John pulled away from you and let Grace hug you one last time before she got your purse and gave it to you. The silence continued to fill up the thick tension while you were gently led out of the house, the stress leaving you exhausted. 

~~~

The last sniffles left your mouth as you slowly lowered your body into the bathtub, the warm water immediately relaxing your tensed muscles. You instantly relaxed and closed your eyes, the events of the day replaying in your head. “You okay, babe?” John gently asked from the toilet seat. He was just staring at you with sadness and disappointment clouding his eyes. He felt like he had betrayed you and was silently promising to make it up to you.

The events from earlier on was something he would never forget, it made him realize that not only was he ready to settle down with you, he was ready to marry you and expand your family of two to three and maybe more. He had felt it since meeting you for the first time. The Nigerian actor wanted nothing more but peace and harmony in his life and he was ready to do anything to get it.

“ I’m good”  you mumbled, your eyes still closed, your brain tuning out the rest of the world and him included. He nodded his head before standing up and giving you some space. He knew that that’s what you needed right now.

Once he had walked out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him, he made his way to his bed and couldn’t help but smile at the new satin sheets and pillows you had gotten him a few days ago. They made his room look even more cozier than before. He loved how he had let you make his home yours too and wanted you to move in with him, or purchase a new house where new memories could be made in.

Just as John had arrived at his bed, his phone that was lying on top of it started to vibrate. He reached down to grab it and looked at the screen, seeing that his mother was calling him. With a frustrated sigh, he swiped over the green phone icon and held it to his ear, not ready for what his mother had to say now.

“John, I want to apologize...”

 said Abigail before letting out a sigh. This made the actor frown and look around him like he was being filmed with a hidden camera. He couldn’t believe what was happening and something deep inside him told him that his mother’s words weren’t true.

“You need to do more than just say this mom. You disrespected the love of my life on every occasion”, the anger slowly began to bubble up inside him again. He loved you to death and now had realized that if he’d have to put some distant in between his mother and him in order for you to be comfortable, he immediately would do it.

“I know that I’ve been acting crazy but I don’t want to lose you, my son. Please tell me how I can redeem myself”. 

John let out a long sigh, he felt torn. He knew that putting you and his mom in one room could lead to another bad interaction but on the other hand, she owed you MANY apologies. He let his mind wander for a few moments.

“Prove you really are sorry and ready to accept [Y/N] as my girlfriend by coming by tomorrow and genuinely apologizing to her. I want you to mean it and do better in the future because I’m going to marry her”.

Abigail gasped softly to herself, being surprised at the new fact she just had learned. The other line was silent as John patiently waited for her to speak. So, she swallowed the feelings bubbling up in her stomach and muttered a slow, “ I will do as you ask” before wishing her son a good night and ending the call.

John locked his phone and dropped it onto the bed before doing the same thing with his body, feeling the stress of today’s events slide into the back of his mind and new worries of how tomorrow’s meeting might go fill up his head. 

While he stared up the ceiling and thought of every single thing that could go wrong the next day, [Y/N] was standing at the other end of the bathroom door with her hand stopping herself from making a sound, having listened to the phone conversation and hearing for the very first time her beloved boyfriend wanted to marry her. The delicate sensations she felt from those few words left her emotional and happy...

To be continued...? 

Tag list: @jamesbarnesappreciationclubub  l @pleasantdreamqueen l @disneymarina l l @harleycativy  l @sparklemichele l @melaninmarvel l @amethyst09 l @the-force-of-imagines l @bossyboyd03 l @pebblesz892 l @stars8melanin l @brittyevans l @toc1985 l @janeyboo l @badassbaker l @winters-beauty l @cannonindeez  l @ilovefanfic86  l @adorablespecialsnowflakes l @brittanyovens l @kanupps06 l @jazmynejack l @thebookwormslytherin l @theunsweetenedtruth l @talannalew l @littlexmissxfandomxlover l @amethyst-dreams-and-candy-canes l @crimsonash330 l @booklover2929 l @aranelgrey l @panda-duuu l @thisismysecrethappyplace  l @titty-teetee l @honey-anon l @princess-evans-addict l @hp-hogwartsexpress l @malindacath  l @letsdisneythings l @scorpionchild81 l @shado-raven l @alisoncdariel l @plutoneu l  @queenoftheworldisdead l @briannab1234l @miyaeadys-blog l @thenamelesscorpse2185 l @hihellogoodbyebruh l @nackrosor l @nerdgurl1985 l @2darkskinbeauty l @bugngiz l @african-melanin-goddess l @barnes-wilson-love l @ktiz90 l @let-the-love-in l @forlornfortitude l @robinredboob l @hopefuloperaangelnerd l @kola95 l @partypoison00 l @alwaysadreamingoptimist l @reniescarlett l @g0thicdream l @mayasopinions l @captaintightpants58 l @leillee

-Emmanuelle 💋❤️

[starwarsfandomh8speopleofcolor]

a brown woman,Nosheen Iqbal, made an interview with Daisy Ridley where she said she isn't privileged. Now rey and daisy fans are defending daisy and saying the journalist did a terrible work. Of course the journalist of color is "wrong" not the 27yo white woman who grew up in Maida Vale.

Ok so here’s the article

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/07/daisy-ridley-jj-abrams-star-wars-a-religion

and this is the relevant section:

I ask if she thinks it has been easier to be confident and navigate her celebrity because of the privilege in her life – of boarding school, her upbringing and so on? Ridley is suddenly incredulous.

“The privilege I have – how? No, genuinely, how?”

Well, I say, in terms of wealth, class, education – that kind of privilege, in knowing how to decode the rules in certain spaces. As a caveat, I add that both of us have privilege, and it’s not a criticism; I was simply curious to know what she thought. Things take an awkward turn.

“Well no, because, no… ” There is a very long and tense pause, before she insists that, actually, there is little difference between her experience and that of her co-star John Boyega, who grew up in south London to British Nigerian immigrant parents. “John grew up on a council estate in Peckham and I think me and him are similar enough that… no.” I don’t point out that members of Ridley’s family were establishment figures (her grandfather, John Ridley OBE, was head of engineering at the BBC from 1950 to 1965; his brother was the Dad’s Army actor and playwright Arthur Ridley), while Boyega had to apply for a hardship fund to join Theatre Peckham.

“Also,” she adds, “I went to a boarding school for performing arts, which was different.” (Her publicist later calls to clarify that Ridley won a scholarship.)But surely nine years of private education gave her some additional confidence?“No.” Ridley leans on her elbow while twirling a small knot in her hair. “No. I think, also, it has taken me a little while to be OK with it. I was always fairly confident, and I think that comes from being part of a big family who are all quite chatty.”It’s an unexpectedly defensive detour, as if the mere mention of privilege is an attempt to diminish Ridley’s hard work or talent. I try to change the subject but get the distinct feeling that her publicist, sitting behind me in Ridley’s eyeline, has made some sort of silent intervention. “I’m not saying what you’re saying is wrong,” Ridley adds. “I’ve just never been asked that before, so I’m like, oh. I don’t think so.” We move on.

Now here’s the thing. What Iqbal didn’t include was this bit that was in the Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7767115/Daisy-Ridley-slammed-tone-deaf-claiming-isnt-privileged.html :

Daisy is the youngest of three daughters born to Louise Fawkner-Corbett, a banker, and Christopher Ridley, a photographer.

She has two older sisters, Kika Rose and Poppy Sophia.

Her mother's family, the Fawkner-Corbetts, were landed gentry with a military and medical background.

I bring out both of these sections to make it clear that its not just Iqbal who noticed that Daisy has privilege.  Daisy fans can scream all they want about the biased brown woman who took down their beloved Daisy but at the end of the day the reality is Daisy Ridley is absolutely blind to her white privilege and class privilege. 

Now I know nothing about Iqbal but she says they both have privilege which I thought was wise of her to point out but if you look at her photo she’s still visibly brown. So like she might have class privilege or a good education but her skin color still singles her out.  

Daisy fans can try and condemn Iqbal all they want but this was a legitimate line of questioning that frankly should have been asked much earlier. But of course white writers don’t dare ask the real questions. 

mod m

[someoneintheshadow456]

It’s always funny when y’all are called out for your antiBlack behavior and your response is “I’m a minority!” Yeah? Can still be racist. And the only time y’all talk about KMT is to bash John Boyega which plenty of Asian fans have been telling y’all to knock that shit off and quit pretending he said he anything anti racist. Idk who the hell Trevor Noah is but it seems you got a problem with black people that just don’t support your ideas of race relations. I mean cmon.....Morgan freeman?

It’s not anti black to say that a person is misogynistic and thinks it’s funny to harass teenagers over fictional ships while supporting a real abuser. He’s also a woke western diaspora who thinks he’s woke by virtue of being western and talks down to African black people (the guy from the I hate racists post? He’s Nigerian).

I mentioned MF as an example specifically so that it makes it painfully clear that JB being black isn’t an issue. I don’t even live in the west and don’t have constant contact with what every Hollywood celebrity says 24/7, but pretty much EVERY celebrity has shitty ivory tower hot takes, it’s just some are worse than others.

Instead of ass kissing rich celebrities who don’t care about anyone but themselves we would be better off supporting the Minneapolis protestors and George Floyd’s family. But nope this is Tungle where people can’t support real causes without conflating them with fandoms in some way. So y’all think calling out a celebrity who HAPPENS to be black for being a POS means we hate all black people.

[soulfood-fics]

Oreo - Chapter 1

Heyy! This is my first fic, hopefully its not trash!

Pairing: John Boyega + Black!OC

Inspiration: John did an interview where he said a girl broke up with him after seeing him on a Star Wars billboard, this story is a variation of that but with my own little twist. 

I made it an original Character but I hope everyone can identify with it. 

Enjoy!

Waking up to the Living Single theme song and the brightness of her TV, Akida feels the covers around her trying to silence her phone. Squinting her eyes to focus on the screen she realizes it’s not her usual alarm but a facetime call from her older sister Bianca. After letting it ring, she decides to answer and point the camera towards the ceiling.

“Hey lil sis!” Bianca’s chipper voice made Akida groan.

“It’s too early for this B,” rolling over so that only her forehead and eyes were visible on screen “…what do you want?” she says, rolling to the other side of the bed and hiding her head under the pillow.

“Girl it is 10am on a Saturday, get up and open the door.”

Slightly confused, Akida brings the phone directly to her face, “You’re here?” The question was answered by a knock on the door.

She’d forgotten she was supposed to do her sisters hair this morning. Jumping out of bed, turning off her TV and scrambling to make her room look decent, Akida put clothes and papers anywhere they’d fit. Just as she stuffs the last pile of clothes in the closet, Bianca knocks again. Rushing out of her room she makes a mental note to thank her roommate for cleaning the kitchen before opening the door. “What took you so long? You know I’ve seen your room before.” Grabbing each other into a tight hug, “I missed you, B” Akida whispers into her sisters hair. “Oh sure you did. You don’t call, you don’t write. I’m tired of being treated like a bald headed stepchild.” 

Closing the door behind her sister, she’d forgotten how dramatic she was. “You live two freeway exits away. Relax.”

~Only being two years apart they hadn’t seen each other much growing up, having different mothers and estranged relationships with their father. They reconnected sometime in high school when Akida’s relationship with their father had gone rotten. Both had been daddy’s girls but at a young age they became aware that the family dynamic wasn’t normal. The visits with their father became shorter and less frequent and eventually stopped. After high school graduation, Akida went to college in the Bay Area to be close to Bianca who had started a family of her own. Her long-time boyfriend Donovan and their adorable three year old son Jacob were the perfect IG black family goals~

“Ready to get started?” Bianca asks as she turns on the living room TV and gets comfortable on the floor in front of the couch. Akida’s mother made her learn how to do hair, especially her own. She’d become her sisters designated braider since she was the only one who knew how to cornrow. Grabbing the rattail comb and other supplies, she sits behind her sister and begins to part her hair.

“Can you do a little design in the front and a second row of braids in the back? That way it’s versatile.” Bianca asks, making Akida raise her eyebrows in surprise.

“For someone who doesn’t know how to cornrow, you’re making a lot of requests.”

Turning around to face her sister, Bianca says “I am a proud member of the BGWCB club!” They both laughed “The what?” she asks.

“It’s the Black Girls Who Can’t Braid club, we are underrepresented and deserve to be acknowledged” Bianca says between chuckles.

Still laughing she goes back to parting the hair into rows and starts braiding. A brief silence falls over them before Bianca changes the subject. “Dad called”, she says as more of a statement than a conversation starter. “He asked about you.” She adds. Not wanting to entertain the topic Akida stays quiet focusing on making clean parts and even sections. Turning around again, Bianca continues “Kiddie he’s sick and it doesn’t look good for him. I think you two should talk.”

Not wanting to hear any more of it Akida snaps back “And if you want these plaits tight I think you should turn around.” Bianca decides to drop the subject and they sit in silence as Akida finishes her hair, sharing the occasional laugh at the Insecure rerun.

Once she finishes the last braid, Akida puts coconut oil on the parts between the braids and shea butter on the ends, “done” she mumbled and moves to get up from the couch headed to her room. Bianca catches up to her sister and hugs her from behind, “Thank you Kiddie!” she sings “And I’m sorry for bringing dad up, I know it’s still a sensitive topic for you.”

“It’s fine.”

“Ooo why don’t we go out for lunch? Donovan’s mom has the baby so I’m free.” Just the mention of food makes Akidas stomach growl, reminding her she hadn’t eaten. “Come on. It’s my treat” Bianca pleads.

“Fine, it’ll be my payment”

Clapping her hands together, Bianca heads back to the living room. Before Akida closes the bathroom door to get dressed she hears “Oh can we take your car? I don’t want to lose my parking space.”

“Sure.” She says rolling her eyes

They decided to go to Akidas favorite Filipino street food spot on Fruitvale. She ordered chicken lumpia and 24 count of their signature G-Fire wings.

“So how are things with you and uh… um.. What’s his name?” Bianca asks before taking a drink of water.

“His name is Elijah and you already know we broke up.” Bianca never approved of Elijah or his relationship with Akida. When they had broken up a few months ago Bianca wanted to throw a party.

“Oh yeah Elijah, so y’all don’t talk still?” Bianca was pressing for answers that she already knew. Akida could tell she was up to something.

“No we do not. Why?” she answered.

“Oh no reason... So would you mind if I gave that guy over there your number?” Bianca tilted her head towards the end of the line to order. Akida turned, moving her braids from her shoulder and saw him. He was cute. Cute in a ‘nice to look at but don’t touch or else he’ll ruin your life’ kind of way. Since she had just gotten her life together, Akida thought it best to leave him alone. “Im not interested.” She said and turned to dip her lumipa in the sweet and sour sauce.

All while they ate Akida had tried to sneak glances at him. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as slick as she thought and they locked eyes for one second too many. Bianca caught their brief interaction also, “Lier, do you want me to get him over here?” she asks and raises her hand to get his attention.

“EXCUSE ME! You with the Africa tattoo! Yeah, Hi can you come here plea- OW.” Her sentence was cut short by Akidas foot connecting with Bianca’s knee.

“Nope! Sorry, big mistake. Stay in your seat please, Sir.” Akida’s attempt for damage control fails as the man continues to get up from his seat and carry his food towards them. “Oh god no. What did you just do?” she whispers harshly towards Bianca who’s already switched seats to make room for the handsome stranger. “I’m getting you a man. Now shut up and be nice,” she whispers back.

Smiling through the pain in her knee, Bianca stretches a hand out to greet him, “Hi, I’m Bianca. Nice to meet you.” pointing towards Akida and the open seat next to here “ my sister and I noticed you eating alone and thought you might want some company. Please have a seat.”

Putting his plate of food down on the table he shakes Bianca's hand, “Nice to meet you. I’m John.”

Oh god, his accent Akida thought, I’d let him hold me.

She continued to imagine what his arms would feel like around her until her thoughts were interrupted, “And THIS is my sister Akida, she's a little shy.” she hadn't noticed the hand in front of her. Internally yelling at herself for missing the opportunity to touch him, Akida strains a smile. He mimics her smile back to her, “it’s alright love, I wouldn't talk to me either.” he says with a laugh and sat down, continuing the conversation with Bianca.

Akida waits for an opening to interject into the conversation.

“I love your accent, where are you from?” Bianca asks.

“London but I’m Nigerian ” he answered. There it was, her opening.

“Oh really that's cool.” dumbass, she thought, out of all the words you know that's what you put together.

He didn't seem to care though, he was just happy she was talking to him. “Yeah, it is pretty cool.”

The just sit and smile at each other for a few seconds.

Not wanting the conversation to go stale Bianca interjects, “Oh Kiddie, tell him about the Jollof Festival.”

“Yeah Kiddie, tell me about it.” John was teasing. He turned in his chair to face her.

It didn't matter how many clothes she had on, the way he looked at her made her feel exposed and completely bare.

“There’s a festival downtown where different vendors have jollof from different places. But it's mostly Ghanaian and Nigerian vendors there, they're a little competitive.” Akida explains.

“And Nigerian Jollof wins. Hands down.” John said matter-of-factly

“I wouldn't know, I’ve never had it before.”

“You have a Jollof festival but you��ve never had jollof ? That's the only way to have it.”

Akida shrugged, “My ex boyfriend was Ghanaian so he only took me to the Ghanaian vendors.”

“Well he’s an idiot,”

“I couldn’t agree with you more!'' Akida and John had both forgotten about Bianca. She was quiet which isn't normal for her. “Sorry to interrupt whatever's going on here,” gesturing to John and Akida, “but we’ve got to go.”

“Awe do we?” realizing what she’s said, Akida quickly corrects herself, “I mean yes we do, sorry John it was really nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you as well, both of you.” John stands letting Akida move from the table, “ Akida I’d like to see you again, if that's alright. Maybe take you out for some real jollof.”

Before she could answer Bianca hands John a napkin with her sister’s number on it, “Oh I thought you’d never ask,” pulling Akida towards the exit, “Bye John.”

As soon as they're out the door, Bianca starts to yell, “DOYOUKNOWWHOTHATWAS?,” stopping in front of Akida. “I didnt recognize him at first but then it hit me!”

“You know him?” 

“Yes! You dont?” 

“No. I’ve never seen him before.” Akida gets distracted by a text, 

Bye Kiddie, Let me know when you want that jollof.

Looking up from her phone, shes met by another screen. Bianca held up a picture, it was John holding a light saber. Her heart dropped “There’s no way.” 

@ghostfacekill-monger @honeychicana

[lostinshawnsmemory]

I know the focus of the discussion in regards to racism and police brutality is the US but the UK isn’t innocent. Sure they won’t call you the n-word outright and there aren’t police shooting unarmed black people but it’s there and it’s a lot more covert.

It’s an old white woman rubbing her hands on her trousers like she touched something dirty after shaking my hand in church

It’s my brother being stopped by the police because he was wearing a hoodie in the middle of winter

It’s my brother being called a monkey at work

It’s people in uni being surprised i spoke perfect English even though I’m not from the UK

It’s my uni demanding I do an English test to prove I understood English even though they had my A-Level results (from a British school) and my IGCSE results where I got an A in both English as a Second AND First Language 

 It’s a store clerk threatening to call security because she thought my mum was being aggressive when my mum checked her for being rude

It’s being called a dog because I called out Katie Hopkins’ bullshit

It’s a drunk white man getting aggressive because he saw my family walking home from dinner.

It’s my friends 2nd year lecturer basing her entire master’s thesis on my friend because she insisted my friend had dyslexia and carried out numerous tests even though my friend didn’t have dyslexia and was the only black girl in her year.

It’s the PRIME MINISTER saying women who wear hijabs looks like thieves and letter boxes.

It’s the PRIME MINISTER saying “They have an almost Nigerian love of money.”

It’s the UK government having £11 million pounds to give to search for Madeline McCann but nothing for those displaced by the Grenfell fire who are mostly from ethnic backgrounds.

It’s people complaining abut a second wave in regards to the Black Lives Matter protest but being suspiciously quiet when white people were at the beach a few weeks ago.

It’s the disparity in the risk of dying from COVID-19 if you are a person of colour

It’s John Boyega being harassed for standing up against racism and using his platform

It’s 80% of the headlines written about Meghan Markle 

It’s Belly Mujinga a train worker who died from COVID after she was spat on having her case closed 2 MONTHS after her death because due to lack of evidence   

It’s the met police using force more often against black people.

It’s Katie Hopkins’ entire twitter

So if you think the UK isn’t racist, not only are you wrong, you’re blind to injustice that is happening right in front of you.

[setsailtomorrow]

“The privilege I have – how? No, genuinely, how?”

Well, I say, in terms of wealth, class, education – that kind of privilege, in knowing how to decode the rules in certain spaces. As a caveat, I add that both of us have privilege, and it’s not a criticism; I was simply curious to know what she thought. Things take an awkward turn.

“Well no, because, no… ” There is a very long and tense pause, before she insists that, actually, there is little difference between her experience and that of her co-star John Boyega, who grew up in south London to British Nigerian immigrant parents. “John grew up on a council estate in Peckham and I think me and him are similar enough that… no.” I don’t point out that members of Ridley’s family were establishment figures (her grandfather, John Ridley OBE, was head of engineering at the BBC from 1950 to 1965; his brother was the Dad’s Army actor and playwright Arthur Ridley), while Boyega had to apply for a hardship fund to join Theatre Peckham.

“Also,” she adds, “I went to a boarding school for performing arts, which was different.” (Her publicist later calls to clarify that Ridley won a scholarship.)

But surely nine years of private education gave her some additional confidence?

“No.” Ridley leans on her elbow while twirling a small knot in her hair. “No. I think, also, it has taken me a little while to be OK with it. I was always fairly confident, and I think that comes from being part of a big family who are all quite chatty.”

It’s an unexpectedly defensive detour, as if the mere mention of privilege is an attempt to diminish Ridley’s hard work or talent. I try to change the subject but get the distinct feeling that her publicist, sitting behind me in Ridley’s eyeline, has made some sort of silent intervention. “I’m not saying what you’re saying is wrong,” Ridley adds. “I’ve just never been asked that before, so I’m like, oh. I don’t think so.” We move on.

what.the.fuck

[writings-of-a-hufflepuff]

Prompt: “Ooh…someone’s got a tummy ache.” 

Character: Finn

Warning: N/A

Notes: Obi is being used as a gender neutral term for parent as it is parent in Yoruba and since John Boyega’s parents are Nigerian I thought it would be appropriate since it’s one of the main languages. I used the internet for that so if its incorrect let me know. Feel free to suggest more gender neutral parent terms for things because I don’t want to have to put mummy/daddy/parent.

“Ooh…someone’s got a tummy ache. So grumpy.” You picked up your son from his crib, he’d been uncomfortable all day and the doctor had said it was just a simple stomach ache, nothing to worry about, but it made your son incredibly grumpy. He was constantly screaming and crying and never happy. It wasn’t the best of situations. 

It didn’t help that Finn had been called off to help with something on the rebel base, leaving you to try and console your son when you knew Finn might have the magic touch. Your son was a daddy’s boy and seemed to always cease crying the instant he saw his father. 

You walked around your family’s living area, rocking your baby boy in your arms, hushing him and trying to console him, and while he stopped screaming, he was still crying and sniffling. You couldn’t blame him. Stomach aches really hurt and for a little baby that didn’t know what was happening it must have been devastating. 

You were relieved when you heard the door open, the sound of shoes being kicked off, and the sight of Finn rounding the corner. “He still unhappy?”

“Mmm, very grumpy, the aches still there.”

“C’mere.” You hand your son over to Finn and watch as if by magic your son starts to calm down in his arms, the tears stop although he’s clearly still frowning. Finn had some sort of magic touch when it came to your baby boy, and you envied his ability to calm the boy instantly. “You need to stop giving your obi trouble, they’re only trying to make you happy, baby boy.”

“He just likes to make me fuss over him, don’t you, sweetie” You lightly tickle your son under the chin and for a moment he smiles before the pained frown returns. It’s horrible seeing him so uncomfortable. 

“Like father like son.”

“Mmm, you are a fusser too.” 

[philtstone]

For the movie thing: William Jackson Harper, John Boyega, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Noah Centineo, Laura Dern, Melissa Fumero

Song:  Phil Collins, Tarzan, “Son of Man”

son of man a man in time you’ll be

Title: Live from Boolgeeda Airport

The summer before he starts college, Benny (Centineo) is sent by his mother to visit with his late uncle’s estranged wife in Australia so that he can experience some of the world before fulfilling his stubborn dream of staying in New York – an excellent place to be, if you ask him – for the rest of his life. This is a move that solves more than one problem; Benny’s mom is worried that Carla (Dern) is lonely now that her husband has passed, and, spurned by practicality and a bit of a guilty conscience, decides that her sister-in-law could use some familial company. 

Benny is extremely reluctant to part with his friends and previous summer plans. But when he arrives on the tarmac of the little rural airfield his aunt is supposed to pick him up from, he realizes that she’s far from the unassuming middle-aged widow he’d thought her to be; Benny’s mom had forgotten to mention that his erstwhile aunt is a renowned zoologist, known to her colleagues as Dr. Trevor and to most others as Chief.

Even less anticipated is the fact that Aunt Carla is less happy hosting Benny than Benny originally was coming. But now that Benny knows how cool his aunt really is, he’s determined to stick to her, even if it means he’s dragged along on an adventure through the Australian outback somehow involving local straight-laced cattle farmer Jenson (Jackson Harper), Aunt Carla’s laid-backNigerian grad student Joseph (Boyega), and a brother-sister duo of tourists who have somehow gotten lost (Miranda and Fumero, respectively). The story turns darker than Benny ever thought it could when it’s revealed that his aunt is being targeted by black-market animal traffickers for her work in wildlife protection. Encouraged by Carla’s unshakable spirit and the bruising kicks of the baby kangaroo that for whatever reason has taken to following them, Benny helps his aunt get through the adventure of a lifetime – just in time for college to start.

[merrock]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

face claim: john boyega

full name: david adebayo

nickname(s): just david.

pronouns & gender: he&him, cis man

sexuality: pan

birth date: august 16, 1992

birth place: london england

time in town: three years

housing: downtown

occupation: EMT

family: father and mother. one younger sister.

personality: David is a kind and compassionate man with mostly everyone. Working in the public as an EMT he sees all types of people and can get along with most of them unless they're awful for whatever reasons. He's charming with that south London accent but knows how to act with the opposite sex. He knows how to have a good time when he isn't working and likes meeting new people.

BACKGROUND / BIO

David was born in London, England to parents of Nigerian descent so he's both British and Nigerian. He's proud of his heritage and culture with his parents had moved there way before he was born. His mother was a nurse and his father was a minister so his home was full of love and compassion even when David wasn't the easiest teenager.

As he grew older, he got into the wrong crowd during his school years with the typical rebelling being a preacher's son. He never drank but he smoked and would tag along with his friends while they tagged places with graffiti. Looking back he's lucky he wasn't put in juvenile hall but he liked doing 'bad' things to try and fit in. One night he came home past curfew with his mother confronting him having a hint of what he could be doing which made her cry. She didn't like the idea of her son being a bad kid. Seeing those tears it lit something in his mind not liking to see her cry. After that he regretted all the times sneaking out at night so he stopped. His dad had an idea of what happened but his mother kept it from him, not wanting to hurt the relationship.

He left those friends while improving his failing grades in time for his junior year. Since he was a boy he was compassionate with people and wanted to help in someway. He decided on being an EMT so he went to college soon after graduating to start his studying. Finally after some years he was able to join his local EMT service learning to really love his job. He thought about being a paramedic at one point but that would be more school and he was already paying student loans, plus this was his passion.

After several years at his job the toll of the job and the long hours was obvious. There was no question he didn't want to quit but he thought of a slower type of pace and an environment. London could be depressing at times. Three years ago he tearfully told his parents he'd be moving so he chose to go to the states, specifically Maine. Now he's been in Merrock transferring his certificates over and he loves it just as much as back home.

[ofaphrvdite]

all the world’s a stage, and ROMEO MONTAGUE is merely one of its players. the 24 year old student is called the renegade here by most that know him. loyal to the montagues, he’s certainly a force to be reckoned with, considering that he’s boisterous and affable. however, if you want to bring him down, i’ll have you know he’s vexatious and flippant. – played by john boyega.

- THE BASICS.

full name: romeo bomani montague name meaning: romeo ‘pilgrim to rome, roman’, bomani ‘warrior’ date of birth: june 22nd, 1993 age: 24 star sign: cancer reimagined: romeo montague from romeo and juliet profession: student and drug dealer faction loyalty: the montagues alignment: chaotic good mbti: enfp spoken languages: english, italian, basic french mother’s name: zaira montague nee. de luca, fifty father’s name: chidi montague, fifty-two siblings, if any: serena montague, twenty seven, sofia montague, twenty seven, alessandra montague, sixteen. height: 5’9” hair colour: black eye colour: brown

- BACKSTORY.

it’s fair to say that romeo had grown up a prince. born the only son to his italian mother and nigerian-veronese father, there had never been a doubt that he was to be the heir to the montague throne. it had long been widely accepted that chidi was a man not to be crossed, the head of the family, and so his cousins never got a look in. other branches of the family forced to accept that their place in this empire would always be below that of the true leader. 

not that there was much cause to fight, though romeo’s father was a fearsome man and led with an iron fist, he had kept their family safe and successful all these years. as his father had before him. they trusted him implicitly, but no family was perfect. there was always an outlier.

as romeo grew, it became clear that despite all his parent’s teachings, he was rapidly transforming into a man who could not be contained. there didn’t seem to be an ounce of montague blood in him, nor his mother’s sharp nature. even his elder sisters seemed more suited for the position than him, but tradition stated that leadership would always pass to the son. and if nothing else, his family were sticklers for tradition.

and so they continued to prepare the boisterous young man for the role he would inevitably play. his family were a community in and of itself, and so his aunts, uncles and cousins all stepped up to shape the young romeo into a leader they could follow. who wouldn’t drive the family business into the ground. and they didn’t fail, not entirely. 

despite remaining the troublesome and reckless youth, romeo became a decent fighter who could hold his own in hand to hand or gunfire. his charisma soon became recognised as a strength; in fact, they were recruiting more than ever with romeo as the frontman at the university. people wanted to follow him, they gravitated toward the confident energy he radiated. strategy wasn’t his greatest talent, but there was another far more suited to that role. one who landed on their doorstep as if by fate, to one day advise the uncontrollable montague heir.

when romeo was just twelve years old, his parents took in a young benjamin sharma. cursed with a bolted father, he was left orphaned after the capulets murdered his mother and with no where else to go, the montagues took him in. the enemy of my enemy is my friend, afterall. but romeo didn’t care how he got there, the connection with the other boy had been immediate, one they would soon solidify as a brotherhood in their teen years. growing up with three sisters had had its moments, but he’d always wanted a brother. someone to talk to about everything in his life, that wouldn’t judge him. he found that in his best friend. and his family were relieved to find romeo’s other, more level-headed and responsible, half.

still their blood feud with the capulets plagued his childhood growing up. he could never understand the hate between their two families. and every death only cemented his belief that this war would only destroy them both. neither side could ever win a fight this bloody, there would only be one loss after another. by the time he’d enrolled at verona university ( his parents having finally convinced him it was the best play for the business ), he’d all but turned a blind eye to the grudge. taking on an air of complete aloofness to save himself the worry. now his only cares are getting his assignments in, and shifting the next shipment as fast and profitably as possible. doing his best to beat the capulet cartel to the punch where he could. the university has given him a strong stake in student life, and his father very much approves of the move. hoping it would end in a takeover for his family. a big win.

life had been fine. he was happy enough, and had finally found a way to feel at home in his inescapable responsibilities. that was, until he crashed a capulet party with a few of his friends. ever the thrillseeker, and with an itch to break the rules, it had seemed like the perfect recipe for a good night as long as they weren’t caught. but all his wild plans for the night evaporated on sight, as soon as his eyes landed on the capulet gem herself. the daughter of his supposed sworn enemy. none of which had crossed his mind, approaching her without thought and leading her out for a dance. romeo had been a goner from the second he’d laid eyes on juliet, and he was not ashamed to admit it - would shout it from the rooftops. if he could.

though juliet changed his world in ways he couldn’t explain, he struggles to keep what feels like the most important thing in his life right now a secret. but with tensions between the two factions higher than ever, how could he ever reveal something that put both their lives in danger. how could he ever risk her? lying to ben, to his family, everyday isn’t easy. but it’s certainly easier than the alternative.

[sleemo]

John Boyega: ‘It will never be just a job’

The Star Wars actor talks about swapping south London for a galaxy far, far away. 

— The Sunday Times Magazine (Dec 16, 2017)

John Boyega auditioned for seven months to land a role in the biggest film franchise of them all. Now he’s the most loved ex-stormtrooper in the galaxy. The Star Wars actor tells Ben Hoyle about growing up in south London, sofa surfing in Los Angeles to save money – and making it as a world-famous star and producer by the age of 25

You knew that John Boyega was different as soon as he dived over the back of his agent’s sofa. 

It was October 20, 2015, and the young south Londoner was catching his first glimpse of the full-length trailer for Star Wars: the Force Awakens. The film would be the first in the franchise since Disney paid George Lucas $4 billion for the company, Lucasfilm, that owned Star Wars. The trailer was a masterpiece of blockbuster marketing. Around the world Star Wars devotees swooned at a silver-haired Han Solo hugging a weeping Princess Leia, at Darth Vader’s crumpled mask, at R2-D2, Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon all being back in action. Everything was meticulously planned and choreographed to provoke the biggest possible global emotional response.

Everything, except for Boyega’s reaction to the trailer. That was what made it so appealing. In the video, which the actor posted to Instagram and which has racked up more than one million views on YouTube, Boyega is tense at first, sitting on a sofa in someone’s living room with his arms folded and his eyes intently on the screen, breathing heavily. 

A minute in he shouts, “Come on!” and then starts nodding, increasingly vigorously, as glimpses of scenes unfold. Then he’s saying, “Yep, yep, yep,” repeatedly, until the trailer gets to the point where his character, Finn, takes guard with a lightsaber. At this point, Boyega bursts into a yell of triumph, pumps both fists and rolls over the back of the sofa in delight while the friend sitting next to him roars with joy and disbelief.

The shouting didn’t last long though, a grinning Boyega says on the eve of the release of the next film in the series, Star Wars: the Last Jedi. “I was in my agent’s apartment and his missus was like, ‘Keep the noise down,’” he says, doing a high-pitched, unimpressed voice. “It was a great moment, but after that you just ... watch it again. And again. And again.”

All those YouTube views were you, then? “Yeah, yeah!” He starts laughing. “Exactly!”

I meet the world’s most famous Anglo-Nigerian former stormtrooper in a hotel in Los Angeles. A whole floor of the hotel has been decked out in Star Wars memorabilia ranging from the obvious (action figures, cuddly toys) to Darth Vader pyjamas for dogs. You are left in no doubt that much more is at stake here than simply making a good or bad film: it’s a movie that is almost certain to be the most successful film of the year and quite likely to be one of the biggest of all time.

This year Boyega has been on the cover of Vanity Fair, Variety and GQ and been named one of Time magazine’s Next Generation Leaders. A few nights ago he was on The Tonight Show, showing off his Michael Jackson dance moves for Jimmy Fallon. At 25, Boyega is no longer the newcomer that he was the last time he took a spin around the Star Wars promotional circuit. 

He is famous enough to have caused a small scandal among more easily outraged Star Wars fans by grinding with a skimpily dressed performer at the Notting Hill Carnival this summer – and confident enough to have, quite rightly, shrugged it off. He tends to speak his mind, slapping down Samuel L Jackson on Twitter for suggesting that black British actors do not “really feel” the hardship of the African-American experience as “a stupid ass conflict that we don’t have time for”. In May, The Times hailed his “very fine and distressingly good performance” in the title role of Woyzeck at the Old Vic.

As well as acting, he has become a producer on Pacific Rim Uprising, out next year, in which he also stars. And he’s just appeared in The Hollywood Reporter with Tom Hanks and Gary Oldman in a discussion with likely Oscar contenders. (Boyega has been critically lauded for his performance in Detroit, set during the city’s 1967 riot.) In other words, he’s a fully fledged movie star these days.

The door opens and I’m ushered into Boyega’s presence. All I can see is a pair of box-fresh white trainers and some black trousers lurking under a huge dark rectangle. There is silence in the room. For a few moments it’s as if I have stumbled into a new performance art phase of his relentless career advance.

Then, with a briefly weary look, the actor puts down the mounted Star Wars promotional poster that he’d been examining from his white leather chair, offers me his hand and switches on his big interview grin.

Boyega is 5ft 9in, stockily built with a powerful physical presence, a Peckham accent and a boisterous personality that probably fills most rooms that he enters. It doesn’t take him long to warm up.

He looks lean and muscular today beneath his blue and white Valentino jacket. Handily, he has a body that bursts with muscles as soon as he starts working on it, he says. But he is quite happy to let himself go a bit for a role too, as he did with Detroit. He likes being “chubby”.

“I just like delicious carbs,” he says, beaming. “I like diversity in many ways. And one thing I’ve always been aware of is diversity in character and shape. There’s a view of perfection on the screen constantly being fed to us, and you look at the heroes in real life and you’re like, there should be more of a difference there.”

Before long he’s leaning forward, furrowing his brows and gripping an imaginary lightsaber, ready for battle. Laughing at himself, but also serious, he is explaining why that instant in The Force Awakens trailer meant so much to him.

“Watching myself with the lightsaber. When you’re on set it’s not as epic. That specific moment of it lighting up, yeah? You hold it and then the cameras roll, and then they go, ‘Action!’ and then the director shouts, ‘Er ... Ignite!’ and then they pause. They swap out the saber for the lit one and someone runs in [he acts out this part], puts it in your hand, and then you have to just go, ‘Grrrrrrr.’ [Here he snaps back into his fight pose and grimaces.] It’s still illuminated, ’cos Dan Mindel [director of photography on The Force Awakens] uses the sabers to make the face pop. So he remotely controls the levels of the sabers. When you crash them together, they turn white. It’s cool. They can change the colours of your saber. And I always ask him, ‘Do my rainbow one,’ in between takes.”

Boyega starts swiping the air with his imaginary lightsaber, chuckling and adding his own sound effects, as a six-year-old boy might: “Wooowoooohoooohoooo!”

The trailer was also special because Boyega is an unabashed fanboy himself. “I’d grown up wanting to be in major Hollywood films and I was the type of person to always check to see what new trailers were on YouTube and to watch B-rolls [extra, usually soundless footage shot to illustrate a story]. I buy DVDs so I can watch the special features. Marketing [of big films] is something that has always intrigued me. So it was like endless curiosity ... Then to be involved in it, for me, it was like: this is nuts!

“I don’t think it will ever feel like just a job. And that’s also me just kind of trying to draw some lessons from watching Mark, Harrison and Carrie [Hamill, Ford and Fisher].” Making Star Wars films becomes all-consuming, he says. “You go into isolation. You go into Pinewood [studios], and we make the movies. And then when the movies are cooking, there’s a quietness. And when the movies are coming out, there is always going to be that natural thing of, now we get the audience involved – you know, to see what we’ve got.”

What he really loves is making the films. “The collaborating of people is something special. That collaboration, where for six, seven months you’re part of one family, coming in every day, filming different scenes ... That to me is where I feel at home. It’s not interviews, it’s not red-carpet stuff. It’s the real deal where it’s acting, it’s technique, it’s craft. It’s great.”

Shooting can be hilarious, though. “Saying all this serious stuff, looking up and then pushing buttons that don’t exist,” he laughs. “I remember when we were filming the gunner sequence in The Force Awakens, I’m shooting, and JJ Abrams, the director, is like, ‘Uh, John, can you push more buttons? Please? It just makes you look more important.’”

Then there was the day Princes William and Harry visited the set of The Last Jedi and dressed up for cameos as stormtroopers. “It was definitely random to meet them. But, then I thought, ‘Well, we are filming it in the UK. Why wouldn’t we have royal approval?’”

Returning to the Star Wars circuit for a second time “feels different”. He knows what to expect this time round. “It just gets real loud.” He finds himself thinking, “Just release the film, man! We want people to go see it.”

When The Force Awakens came out Boyega went to New York to surprise fans at cinemas across the city and then flew home to London to make further unannounced appearances at screenings in Peckham, Greenwich and Brixton.

“I stayed in the city, in London, just to witness everything going crazy. Now I’m going on holiday – time for some separation. I’m going to Nigeria and the Caribbean.”

Surely you can’t get away from Star Wars – even there? “Oh, in Nigeria and the Caribbean you can ... to a certain extent. ’Cos they put a Nigerian in Star Wars, Nigerians are like, ‘We’re gonna go see it.’ But the role is secondary – it’s more about who you are, your family. And then it’s like, ‘Oh, he is also in that Star Wars film.’”

Boyega was born in Camberwell to first-generation immigrant Nigerian parents, nine years after Return of the Jedi came out. He grew up on a council estate in nearby Peckham. His father, Samson, was a Pentecostal preacher and also a “massive Bruce Willis fan”. His mother, Abigail, worked with disabled children. He has two older sisters: Blessing, a train driver and beauty blogger, and Grace, who works as his assistant. The family had “struggles”, which is why money matters “the most” to him now. “We’ve come a very long way,” he says, proudly.

At 17, the age that Boyega was when he started acting seriously, “my dad was on the streets in Africa, selling food to random drivers and farming part-time. My mum used to sell water and sausages on the street. So finances, financial stability, is something that’s important for my family.” 

He recently bought his parents a house. Do they still work? “Oh, I told them to stop all that.” Samson still preaches, “But the ministry has changed, in the sense that now I give him funds to be able to go and change other people’s lives. My mum and dad travel to Nigeria with their charity and they give water, toilet and educational facilities to neighbouring villages.”

Boyega has always bristled at media efforts to paint his life as the rags-to-riches fable of a boy who escaped the supposedly mean streets of Peckham to scale the heights of Hollywood.

“They went to town on that, and that was hilarious,” he says, not laughing. A while ago a newspaper ran a profile of him suggesting that he grew up surrounded by drugs, violence and gang life. He skewered it with a brusque tweet: “Inaccurate. Stereotypical. NOT my story.”

He does not want to clarify how well he knew Damilola Taylor, the ten-year-old Nigerian boy who went to his school and who was stabbed to death on the North Peckham estate in 2000. “That for me is personal,” he says with finality. But Damilola’s father, Richard Taylor, whom Boyega invited to the London premiere of The Force Awakens, has said, “Damilola and John and Grace were so close.” They were walking home with him on the day that he died, according to Taylor. Of all his friends, “They were the last to see him.”

Despite that tragedy, Boyega loved his youth and remembers it as full of culture and opportunity. “I had a fantastic childhood,” he has said. “I was exposed to a world of dance, tap, musical theatre. I performed at the Royal Albert Hall when I was 13.”

He joined Theatre Peckham, a programme for talented children, and studied performing arts at South Thames College. A small role in a prison drama at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn led to a lead part in 2011’s Attack the Block, Joe Cornish’s cult British sci-fi comedy. From the moment that a menacing Boyega appeared on screen, mugging a young nurse on her way home from work one night and then, seconds later, fighting for his life with an alien that has burst out of a car glove compartment, it was clear that he had both a magnetic talent and a gift for making the most outlandish material seem convincing.

He dropped out of his BA in film studies at the University of Greenwich after seeing Johnny Depp shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean film on campus. He realised he wanted to do that, and wasn’t getting any closer to it in the classroom.

Finding good acting jobs in Britain hard to come by, he started going to America looking for a break. He was 19. He stayed in West Hollywood for a while but ran out of money and “ended up sleeping on a sofa in Inglewood [a predominantly black neighbourhood], with a family there. They’re still like my family. It gives you perspective on many, many things. And they were a black-conscious family. So there were DVDs we were watching, and obviously lectures, talking about the black community, black finance.” He still visits them “all the time” and appreciates having a reference point to keep him grounded. “But to be honest, because of my background, because of the way I am and how I grew up, it’s what I attract. It’s what my universe attracts. I attract the folk that grew up the way I did. I can relate.”

In 2012 Boyega was in Los Angeles working on a Spike Lee pilot for a TV boxing drama that never got made. He had a meeting with Bryan Burk, the co-founder with JJ Abrams of the production company Bad Robot. Burk thought that Boyega was “fantastic” in Attack the Block and in person found him to be “as friendly as he is talented”. While Boyega was at the office he bumped into Abrams, who was walking out of an editing suite with Tom Cruise. He recalled in an Instagram post last year how he “mentally slowed down their epic two-man walk” and set it to a Jay-Z song in his head. Abrams knew him, too, said he had also loved Attack the Block and promised to get him a part “in something”. The post contains Boyega’s response: “Thanks mate and sure (fully not believing a word this man said).”

But Burk and Abrams did keep him in their thoughts. Casting The Force Awakens, they brought his name up “early on”. In Boyega’s second audition “the magic was right there”, Burk says. But the process took seven months of auditions. Boyega, being Boyega, “felt like I was gonna get the part, because they kept on bringing me back too many times”. At the end of the 7 months, he spent his last £70 on a 45-minute taxi ride to meet Abrams in Mayfair and discover his fate. He was now a bit nervous but still filmed the whole journey so he would be able to remember what life felt like before his world possibly changed for ever.

His casting led to racist abuse. Boyega refused to be cowed. “I’m proud of my heritage, and no man can take that away from me. I wasn’t raised to fear people with a difference of opinion. They are merely victims of a disease in their mind,” he later told The New York Times. “I’m grounded in who I am, and I am a confident black man.”

On set it swiftly became apparent he was also a fan let loose in the Star Wars universe. “When we did the film,” says Burk, “most of us were fans stepping into that world.” But Boyega was much less embarrassed about it. “My fondest memory of him was on Harrison’s last day of shooting. He had an enormous Han Solo action figure, 2ft tall – Harrison in his stormtrooper outfit in the original film. He had Harrison sign it. I think all of us actually were thinking, ‘Why didn’t we bring our Han Solo action figures in for Harrison to sign?’” 

Even now Boyega looks wide-eyed remembering “the room would stop” when Ford, Fisher and Hamill were interacting with each other. 

Hamill was the one Boyega directed his “nerd questions” to, because, “He will give you detail. It’s cool to hear his experiences.” Boyega, who still plays Star Wars video games, admires Hamill so much that on days when he was not shooting on The Last Jedi he would often go in anyway just to watch Hamill act.

Fisher stunned him early on by inviting him to come and stay with her in Beverly Hills. “I remember saying, ‘Carrie, that’s very generous, but like, we just met each other. I’m not just gonna come and stay in your guest house.” He regrets saying no, because going to stay with the famously hard-living Fisher would have been “pretty darn fun”. She died in December last year when Boyega was on a boat in Nigeria celebrating his parents’ wedding anniversary. The whole family was distraught. “It was a shocker,” he says. 

Of all the original principals, though, it is Ford who seems to have made the biggest impression, and not just because Han Solo was Boyega’s favourite character growing up. 

“Everyone has a fear of Harrison that I quite like,” he says, laughing. “He’s actually really chill.” On the last promotional tour Ford asked Boyega to show him somewhere local to eat in London. Boyega took him to 805, a Nigerian restaurant next to a Ladbrokes on the Old Kent Road. They sat by the bar and had fruit cocktails, soup made with pounded yam and jollof rice with plantain.

“Loads of people came around him and he was chill ... We were waiting for our car to pull up, and there were Nigerian men outside drinking and going [he puts on a strong Nigerian accent], ‘Oh, Harrison, good to see you.’ At his level of stardom, it’s nice to see that example and know that it’s my choice to keep a level of normality, to be able to be brave enough to go to a restaurant and to have a great time regardless.”

Ford also proved more able than the other two to carve out a major acting career beyond Star Wars, something that Boyega is already doing. “If you wait for the trilogy to be over there’s more convincing to do. Whereas, if you do other roles around Star Wars, the audience gets used to seeing you in different things.”

In Detroit Boyega has one of the larger roles in an ensemble drama – a harrowing portrait of racial tension in Sixties America. Boyega says Detroit proved “the audience believed me in something serious, ’cos I was worried that they’re going to be like, ‘What’s Finn doin’ over here?’ Nobody had that reaction to me. That really brought my blood pressure down.” 

The film paints a portrait of black life in Detroit at the time, pushing beyond simple “ghetto” stereotypes in just the same way that Boyega wants people to understand that there is more to Peckham than urban blight. “Sometimes we like to simplify things in the world just to process them more easily, and sometimes we need to be careful with that.” 

He still lives in south London, where he shares a flat with a roommate. “One thing I like is to go back to my local off-licence. The owner of the store has the Star Wars posters up, so I see that every single time I go. I’m like, ‘Boss, man.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you’re back!’” The shop is Khan’s Bargain on Rye Lane. “Go get some stuff there, guys!” Boyega says, leaning over my Dictaphone. “He’s got my favourite childhood sweets. They’re like 39p; you get 3 for £1. If it goes over £1, man, I’m gonna be like, ‘You gotta be taking the piss!’ When I’m back home and I’m hanging out with my friends, we hang out the way we always hang out. And I’m gonna need sweets.” 

Is there anything he can’t do any more? Not really. He has always been a “homebody” and had sought out privacy long before he was famous. “When I was 16, I was like, ‘I can’t be getting on public transport no more, man.’ I already wanted to be in my own car, play my music, having my AC on.” 

He has bigger ambitions now. Bryan Burk says that he’s “100 per cent” sure that Boyega can become a successful producer and be “a lot more than just a leading man. I see him really putting his imprint on all types of movies.” 

But first there are celebrations to plan. Four of them. Boyega is throwing “three massive parties” in Nigeria over Christmas and a friend is helping to organise a costume party for him, his family and friends in Britain. The theme will be “villains only”. Can people come as a stormtrooper then? “Yeah, definitely. Come as whoever you want to come as.” 

So does he own a stormtrooper outfit? John Boyega, the first actor ever to portray these armoured warriors with humanity, looks horrified at the very idea.

“I would never carry that home. It just reminds me of getting chipped in the armpit by the plastic.” He pauses for a beat. “But a helmet I am dying to have.”

[idlexwrshp]

Aisha Dee (biracial (unspecified white & black) - 24 years old) is an Australian actor best known for her role Kat in The Bold Type. You may also know her from Chasing Life & The Saddle Club. 

gif hunts!

corneliahelps - #231 (all from the bold type; constantly updated)

aussiefaces - #144

kbunburyhelps - #362 (3 different hunts; all from sweet/vicious)

sarahsrp - #133 

arielrpt - #108 (gif icons) 

jaifkncourtney - #144 (2 different hunts; all from chasing life)

justdoinggifs - #228 (all from the bold type)

icons!

damnselrps - mine! i’m going to be constantly posting icons of her because i love her.

madebymandyla - #90 (all the bold type)

jacksgaphelps - #500 (all the bold type)

dragonflyrph - #5 (dash icons)

possible family fcs!

jesse williams - biracial (afro-american & swedish) - 36 years old

maya rudolph - biracial (unspecified black & jewish) - 45 years old

jordin sparks - biracial (unspecified white & black) - 28 years old

halle berry - biracial (unspecified white & black) - 51 years old

alisha boe - biracial (norwegian& somali) - 21 years old

amandla stenberg - biracial (afro-american and danish) - 19 years old

candice patton - afro-american - 30 years old

chadwick boseman - afro-american - 40 years old

john boyega - nigerian - 26 years old

viola davis - afro-american - 52 years old

idris elba - unspecified black - 45 years old

people she has photos/resources with!

meghann fahy

katie stevens

nikohl boosheri

alycia debnam carey

marny kennedy

italia ricci

yay! first of many! if you have someone you think i should add to my to do list for this, let me know please!!