--- description: He didn't want the director to know that he was at home waiting on a call title: Star Wars Star John Boyega Says He Lied to J.J. Abrams image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7edc9ebca6a12d43/69887634bc6cfcbaba3daefa/gettyimages-501923160.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Star Wars_ Star John Boyega Says He Lied to J.J. Abrams by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 19, 2015 7:10 PM CUT  Actor John Boyega during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on December 18, 2015 Actor John Boyega during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on December 18, 2015NBC—2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 19, 2015 7:10 PM CUT _The Force Awakens_ actor John Boyega tells Jimmy Fallon that he lied to Star Wars director J.J. Abrams to save face. Boyega made an appearance on the _Tonight Show_ Friday night, where Fallon surprised him with outtakes from the cast singing an a cappella version of the Star Wars theme song. The host also questioned Boyega about the long process of going from auditions for the new Star Wars film, where Boyega let it slip that he had lied to Abrams during the casting process. “It took seven months to audition and then J.J. sent me an email that was like ‘where are you?’ I lied and told him I was at an art gallery, when I was at home.” Boyega said. “Listen, in my defense I told him that because, you know, you don’t want a director thinking that you’ve got all the free time in the world. You want him to think that you’re up to stuff. So I told him ‘yeah, I’m at an art gallery, I’m not waiting to hear back about your movie J.J.!'” Watch the clip below: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156067/star-wars-john-boyega-the-force-awakens-jj-abrams-lie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156067/star-wars-john-boyega-the-force-awakens-jj-abrams-lie/"},"headline":"Star Wars Star John Boyega Says He Lied to J.J. Abrams","datePublished":"2015-12-19T19:10:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:31:15.397Z","description":"He didn't want the director to know that he was at home waiting on a call","url":"https://time.com/4156067/star-wars-john-boyega-the-force-awakens-jj-abrams-lie/","keywords":["movies","Star Wars topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7edc9ebca6a12d43/69887634bc6cfcbaba3daefa/gettyimages-501923160.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7edc9ebca6a12d43/69887634bc6cfcbaba3daefa/gettyimages-501923160.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-501923160","caption":"Actor John Boyega during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on December 18, 2015","creditText":"NBC—2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4156067/star-wars-john-boyega-the-force-awakens-jj-abrams-lie/","name":"Star Wars Star John Boyega Says He Lied to J.J. Abrams"}}]}] ```