Daisy Ridley and John Boyega Talk Rey and Finn With Entertainment Weekly

By: Dominic Jones

Entertainment Weekly has released another feature on Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, this one featuring interviews with the film's new leads.  John Boyega and Daisy Ridley talked with EW's Anthony Breznican about their character's Rey and Finn, and the negative response by a vocal few to their casting.  

On how we meet Rey in The Force Awakens, Ridley said,

“There was no one really guiding her. She’s never sat around a table and had a meal with someone else.  She has a boss, she has someone to answer to, she has to trade the junk for food, and that’s how it has to be. She works to feed herself, and she goes to sleep, and she gets up again. It is a sad life.”

Ridley also told EW about the time she got advice on piloting the Millennium Falcon from Harrison Ford, saying,

“I was doing random switch-flipping and Harrison kind of put his hand out and said, no, everything had to have a purpose. Like, you flip a switch and then you see what it does, before you do anything else.  I was probably flipping switches too quickly!”

She had another run in with Harrison on the set of the Falcon when she went to sit in his seat.  She told EW,

“There’s a shot where I pilot the Falcon by myself. And then [on another day] Harrison and I went to film together. I went to get into the pilot seat and he was like, ‘That’s mine,’ and I was genuinely mortified. And J.J. was sitting there like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ And, you know, I moved into the co-pilot seat.”

When asked about where Finn is when we meet him, Boyega said,

“It’s about looking for a greater purpose, rather than thinking ‘this is the only thing I can do.’  He wants to change. He wants to make a difference. He’s trying to find some kind of moral dignity in this war.”

On getting to use a lightsaber, Boyega said,
“It started in rehearsals. We had [Kylo Ren actor] Adam Driver. That was the first time ever I had a stick in my hand that I could pretend was a lightsaber, which was the first stage of excitement.  I had to do all the sound effects and stuff by myself.”

Boyega expanded on the experience describing what it was like to actually film the scenes, saying,

“That’s when I got the real saber, which is blue, it’s lighted, and just looks really epic.  It felt monumental in my hand. I knew not to play like I used to when I was a kid, but to actually use it in serious combat for a scene. It’s absolutely crazy to have in your hand. It’s a bit heavy but it’s worth it."

Boyega commented on the bigoted idiots who complained about a black man and a woman being the lead in the new Star Wars film, saying, 

“We’ve been having a continuous struggle with idiots, and now we should just force them to understand – and I love the way I just used Force there, by the way – just force people to see this is the new world. There are loads of people of different shades and backgrounds. Get used to it.”

Ridley also revealed that her and Boyega had braised themselves for the response saying,

“John and I had a conversation last year and we both knew that was how it was going to be. He was going to be the black guy and I was going to be the girl.  I think neither of those things could ever be a bad thing.”

She also commented on how she doesn't necessarily perceive Rey as a "hero", saying,

“For me, the idea of her being called a ‘hero’ or a ‘heroine,’ I think that’s almost wrong, because the whole thing is she’s a normal girl going on a journey.  There’s so much talk about gender, still, and the wage gap, and opportunity for women around the world in different sectors, so to be one of the facial representations of a positive progression is incredible. It’s not a burden… It just seems to me like it’s so simple, and obviously the difficulty then is when you look at other films and go, ‘Oh my god how did you screw up so badly? Why is your cast so white and male?’”

You can read the rest of the interview with Ridley and Boyega over at EntertainmentWeekly.

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