The man who plays Finn thought that porgs were, like, overgrown space rats at first.
A wide-ranging interview on Screen Crush reveals John Boyega’s initial response to Star Wars‘ new cuddly xeno-creatures. It wasn’t a good first impression:
My first reaction was horror… I saw the porgs in the hole in the Millennium Falcon, with tiny smaller ones all bunched together. From then, we always got off on a bad foot.
To be honest, I haven’t seen the movie yet so I don’t know how they play in the film. But I thought there was like a porg infestation on the Falcon! Because they were everywhere! And Chewie – if you’ve seen the trailer – he slaps one off the deck of the ship. So, yeah, it was always itchy times if I saw some porgs. If I saw one porg by itself, in a big size, it’s much better. But if I see a bunch of little critters all together, looking like bugs, it makes me itchy.
Boyega also talks about director Rian Johnson’s creative process and says that he asked him to give Finn a cooler outfit in the upcoming sequel. His favourite Star Wars toy? The original Millennium Falcon from 1979, which he hunted down and now owns. You should go and check out the full interview over at Screen Crush.