John Boyega says he will "never forget the day" he spent almost all his money to meet JJ Abrams and get his Star Wars role

John Boyega gave his all during the audition process for Star Wars: The Force Awakens – and that apparently included almost all his money.

The British actor, who was ultimately cast as stormtrooper-turned-rebel Finn in the popular sci-fi franchise, recently recalled how he got the role during a panel at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo last Saturday. "I had been auditioning for so long, so I felt like he kind of took away my dignity a little bit," Boyega told the audience (via People), saying he will "never forget the day" director J.J. Abrams broke the news to him.

"I decided to pretend as if I was busy, you know, when you just pretend that you're busy. 'I got other stuff to do, J.J..' 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.' And I go, 'Okay, okay, I'm gonna be right there.'

"At the time I had £45 in my account. It took £33 and 83p to get to J.J. Do the math," he explained.

Luckily, Boyega made it to the restaurant to meet Abrams, and that conversation was about to change his life forever. "Each step I took, I was nervous," he remembered. "I was like, 'Okay, cool.' You know, J.J. is a phenomenal, nice guy, and if he was to tell me I didn't get the part, he would still feed me," he added.

"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 actor continued, saying that "everything felt very surreal."

The cherry on top was writer-director Lawrence Kasdan showing up in the meeting too to tell him that The Force Awakens was going to change his career. "That's the Hollywood s***. You know what I'm saying?", Boyega told the audience in Chicago.

Kasdan wasn't wrong – although he had been acting professionally for nearly a decade, John Boyega jumped to stardom thanks to the 2015 film, which was followed by two sequels, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

For more, check our our list of all upcoming Star Wars movies and shows, and learn how to watch Star Wars in order for your next marathon.