John Boyega said he had just $60 to his name when J.J. Abrams asked him to discuss "Star Wars." Boyega spent $43 traveling to meet the filmmaker, and was ultimately cast in "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens."
The British star played Finn, a former Stormtrooper, in Disney's "Star Wars" sequel trilogy alongside Daisy Ridley as the scavenger Rey and Oscar Isaac as the rebel pilot Poe.
Boyega has since gone on to appear in blockbusters including "Pacific Rim: Uprising," "The Woman King," and Netflix's "They Cloned Tyrone." Before appearing in "Star Wars," Boyega had starred in three small-scale movies, including 2011's science fiction comedy horror, "Attack the Block."
Speaking on a panel at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo on Saturday, Boyega recalled the moment that Abrams called him and asked to meet him in London, People reported.
He said he had been auditioning for a long time and felt that Abrams "kind of took away my dignity a little bit," so he pretended he was busy.
Representatives for Abrams did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
"He goes, 'Where are you?' And I said 'I'm at this art show in Greenwich, mate. I'm very, very busy. Where are you?' He goes, 'Well, I'm in Mayfair and [at a] restaurant. Need to talk to you now. And we'll talk about something important,'" Boyega said. "At the time I had £45 in my account. It took £33 and 83p to get to J.J. Do the math."
Boyega initially wondered if Abrams was going to tell him that he didn't get the role, but described him as a "phenomenal, nice guy," adding, "if he was to tell me I didn't get the part, he would still feed me."
Boyega added: "And so I sat down and, J.J. just said, 'Thank you so much for coming back. I know we've kind of [strained] you with this amount of auditions.' At that time, I took it upon myself to try and get another audition and go like, 'J.J., please. Look, I can audition again. I can do British, Scottish, Nigerian, whatever. And he goes, 'You're [in Star Wars].'"
"The moment froze" and "everything felt surreal," Boyega said. Then Lawrence Kasdan, the cowriter of "The Force Awakens," arrived.
"And then this just puts the 'Star Wars' stamp on it: [the movie's co-writer Lawrence Kasdan] walks out and he said, 'Kid, this movie's gonna change your life.' And that's the Hollywood s---. You know what I'm saying?"
"The Force Awakens" later became one of the most successful movies in the franchise, earning $2.07 billion worldwide, per Box Office Mojo, and has a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
