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.”
“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?’”
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