British-Nigerian actor, John Boyega, has criticised drama series, Game of Thrones for what he termed its lack of diversity.
The 25-year-old, who spoke to GQ, said he isn’t paying money to see a particular race on screen.
He said:
There are no black people on Game of Thrones, You don’t see one black person in Lord of the Rings. I ain’t paying money to always see one type of person on-screen!
While describing their actions racist, he said:
Because you see different people from different backgrounds, different cultures, every day.
Even if you’re a racist, you have to live with that. We can ruffle up some feathers!
In contrast to his claims, the franchise featured quite a number of black actors such as Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), DeObia Oparei (Areo Hotah), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Lucian Msamati (Salladhor Saan) and Nonso Anozie (Xaro Xhoan Daxos).
Novelist and the creator of the franchise, George R R Martin responded to criticisms on the lack of diversity months ago.
According to him, Westeros around 300 AC wasn’t as diverse as 21st century America. He also said that his books have some characters of colour who will have larger roles in the next book in the series, Winds Of Winter.
John Boyega on his part will be seen next in Star Wars movie this December, The Last Jedi.
This post first appeared on TNS.