John Boyega talks about landing Star Wars role in awesome animated clip

In an animation for BBC Two program Black Hollywood: “They’ve Gotta Have Us,” John Boyega tells the story of how he landed his Star Wars role.

As far as Hollywood casting goes, most of us have a pretty vague idea of the process that ranges from starving artists being discovered at fast food restaurants to actors reviewing scripts over caviar and champagne. It’s really refreshing when an actor comes forward with a humble story of success because it reminds all of those aspiring actors out there that achieving stardom is possible after all.

Star Wars star John Boyega, who plays Finn, the reformed stormtrooper in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, is one of those actors whose claim to fame story seems so normal that we can all relate. Boyega recently shared a clip from the BBC Two program Black Hollywood: “They’ve Gotta Have Us,” where he regales us with the details of how he found out that he was going to be the next Star Wars star, and there’s a super cute animation to fill in the visual blanks, too.

You can watch the watch the clip here:

The story goes that Boyega received a call telling him that J. J. Abrams wanted to see him and then received an email from Abrams asking where Boyega was in hopes for a meeting. Boyega lied to appear busy and said he was at an art exhibition in Greenwich, London. We’re pretty sure that he also thought being at an art exhibition would give him some cool points (which he didn’t need because he’s cool already), but Boyega was actually at home with a girl he was seeing.

Abrams, who was in England, asked Boyega to meet him at a location which was a £75 cab ride (about $96) from Boyega’s location in Catford, London. Boyega revealed he went into debt over the cab ride because he had less than that in his account, but this meeting was well worth the negative signs in his account.

Boyega met with Abrams at a restaurant where the director’s first question was: “Are you ready to be a leader?” While this would have signaled to most that this was a big moment, Boyega didn’t seem to realize what the words meant. He thought he was still vying for a chance in a film and proceeded to pitch Abrams a request for one last audition. Boyega and Abrams then interrupted each other a few times until Abrams was able to announce that Boyega was the new star of Star Wars.

Boyega describes his reaction to the news as a moment where time froze, and there’s no other way to imagine that moment then just that. Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not, you can imagine how mindblowing it is for someone to realize that they are going to lead a film that is historically phenomenal. Since Finn is definitely a fan favorite, we should all be thanking Boyega’s bank service for allowing him to go into the negative on the cab ride of a lifetime.