John Boyega responds after Michael Rapaport says he should be ‘grateful’ for ‘Star Wars’
Michael Rapaport did not feel John Boyega's experiences were unique to Black actors
While Michael Rapaport may pride himself on being a fan of Black culture, recently John Boyega called out the white actor for attempting to whitesplain his experience as a Black lead in Star Wars.
In a recent interview with British GQ, Boyega revealed that he didn’t feel that Disney knew what to do with him as a Black actor within the Star Wars franchise.
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“You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up,” he said.
“…Like, you guys know what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f**k all,” he continued.
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In response to the interview, Rapaport, who has a history of speaking up about hot topics, chided Boyega for speaking about his experiences.
“@JohnBoyega Yo my man you have done so much in a short period of time. Congrats.. but you ain’t the first actor to have an un nuanced [sic] character in a Star Wars movie,” he wrote. “Welcome to show business. S**t doesn’t always go ur way.”
“Did you read the article?” Boyega responded.
“Things don’t always work out the way YOU plan,” Rapaport continued, undeterred. “Happens to ALL of Us. Again be grateful for all u done so far which is a lot more than TONS of great actors of all races who also had roles cut down & will continue to[.]”
“[N]o,” Boyega replied, with a smiley face. “Thanks though.”
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