Attack The Boyega

You may not know the name John Boyega (above) now, but you will. He was the 17-year-old kid plucked from a London stage to carry director Joe Cornish's ghetto alien invasion flick Attack The Block. Boyega plays Moses, the leader of a teen gang in South London as they try to defend their housing block from an alien invasion. Written and directed by Cornish, Attack The Block closes the Gold Coast Film Festival tomorrow night next week.

Applauded by critics and audiences alike, Boyega snagged the role after the casting directors saw him performing in a play in North London.
“At the time I was doing my first job as a professional actor on stage,'' he said.
“The producer and the casting director came to see me and I was only on stage for 10 minutes.
`”It was crazy.''
Boyega auditioned for the role six times - "it was recall after recall'' - but Cornish had already made his decision.
“He said I had the part after the first audition, he just wanted to see my chemistry with the others,'' said Boyega.
“I was like `man, why didn't you just tell me?' I was sweating.'' He joined a cast of young unknown British actors with many, like Boyega himself, native to the area depicted in the film.
“It's the closest urban script I've ever read,'' he said.
“I'm from South London and when I'm with my boys, the energy . . . there's something you just can't explain. It was fun to have that sort of script.”
Boyega said it was a great experience to "share our first film together'' with the teen cast. Yet there were also some Hollywood heavyweights on set including executive producer Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Dead, Scott Pilgrim, ) – “he's just like Batman'' - and Nick Frost (Paul, Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Daed) – “we call him Uncle Nick. Nick is like your all year round Santa Claus''.

Boyega said his parents now see him as their own action movie star.
“My mum sees me in a different light, she thinks I'm an action superhero. Therefore whenever she hears something creaking downstairs in the kitchen she's like `John, you get it. Do something like you did in the film.'
“Dad thinks I'm incredibly cool but he still wants me to get to the level of Bruce Willis because he's a big Bruce Willis fan.''

Touted as “the next Denzel Washington'', Boyega has officially broken into Hollywood with Attack The Block and said he has been getting a lot of “interesting'' offers.
“I'm an audience member as much as an actor," he said.

"I would love to do something of the same ilk but a different character.
“I'm very much into creating other people so that when you watch me on screen and see me in real life, you can say those are two totally different people.
“That's the magic of acting.
“I just got signed by CAA management and the scripts that I've been getting have been very, very interesting in terms of people not giving me the same old.
“The way they want to go is of epic proportions, let me just say that. I may be leading some sort of army again.''

Attack The Block closes the Gold Coast Film Festival on Sunday, November 27 at Birch Carroll and Coyle Cinemas, Australia Fair at 7.30pm. For more information visit http://www.gcfilmfestival.com/

Attack The Block opens in Australian cinemas nationally on December 1. Trust.