During John Boyega’s Popverse-moderated Spotlight panel at last weekend’s Emerald City Comic Con, he shared that an introduction to J.J. Abrams by Tom Cruise along with his turn in the 2011 cult classic Attack the Block helped land him the role in The Force Awakens.
“I’m thankful to Tom Cruise, who loved ‘Attack the Block.’ He was editing ‘Mission: Impossible’ at the time with J.J. Abrams. Tom told J.J., ‘You’ve got to watch this kid in ‘Attack the Block.” J.J. watched it, and one thing led to another, and four or five years later, I was in the movie.”
Cruise and Abrams first worked together on 2006’s “Mission: Impossible III,” which served as the latter’s feature directorial debut. Abrams has remained on board as a producer on the “Mission: Impossible” property ever since, meaning he and Cruise have been working together for a long time now. Not to mention, when a guy like Cruise recommends something, it’s probably worth taking seriously. That’s precisely what Abrams did, it seems.
