I haven’t revisited this in a long time. Yeah, my heart is just beating.” The Attack the Block and Star Wars actor is talking in the opening scene of a new BBC Two documentary about the killing of 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor. On 27 November 2000, Damilola was stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle and left to die in a concrete stairwell, attacked as he walked home from an after-school club at Peckham library in south London.
It took six years and three separate trials at the Old Bailey, costing a total of £16m, to secure a manslaughter conviction. His death shocked the nation not only because he was so young, but because all the suspects were also children. Boyega was one of the last people to see Damilola alive.
The pair had enjoyed a close friendship since Damilola’s move to the UK from Nigeria in August of that year. Watching the film at a Bafta screening a few weeks before its premiere, it’s striking how young and vulnerable the 34-year-old actor looks as he talks about the death of his friend. Boyega is more often seen looking assured and confident, be that his impassioned, impromptu address to thousands of people at a Black Lives Matter protest in Hyde Park, posing for the Pirelli calendar, or portraying an African king in a Hollywood movie.
Usually he stands tall, with broad shoulders supported by a proud stance. But in revisiting the memories of that day, it feels as if he has almost reverted to the eight-year-old child he was nearly 26 years ago when he found out his friend had died. A couple of hours later I reconvene with him at BBC New Broadcasting House to discuss the show.
In person, Boyega is unassuming, with a calm demeanour and a welcoming smile. He has just returned from a trip to New York fashion week and looks surprisingly fresh-faced for somebody who has not long stepped off a transatlantic flight. Boyega is sitting comfortably with his father Samson, his mother Abigail and an older cousin.
It’s a lively space – Boyega lives in Los Angeles now and I get the impression that everybody is excited to snatch a bit of time with him while he’s in London. We immediately get into a five-way conversation about the criminal proceedings around Damilola’s death. Everybody is talking at once.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
