Star Wars newcomer John
Boyega celebrated landing his first blockbuster role by taking Harrison
Ford to his favourite childhood restaurant – an African diner beneath a
block of flats in Peckham.
Staff
and customers were stunned when Boyega, 23, who was plucked from
relative obscurity to play stormtrooper Finn in the latest instalment of
the sci-fi spectacular, arrived at Nigerian eatery “805” in Old Kent
Road accompanied by the “real-life Han Solo”.
It
happened soon after Boyega had landed a leading role in Episode VII: The
Force Awakens, and before the publicity frenzy surrounding the launch
of £2bn spectacular.
One suprised waiter asked: “Are you Harrison Ford?” to which the famously gruff actor replied: “I used to be.”
Boyega
said the star-studded European premiere in Leicester Square last night
was “particularly special because I’m from London.”
He told
the Standard, Ford asked him to be shown around the area where he had
grown up, adding: “In order to break Harrison into the London culture I
took him to the Old Kent Road to have some Nigerian food - and he loved
it.”
Ford
and Boyega arrived on a busy Friday night last September and were made
to wait several minutes for a table, before being seated at a far side
of the restaurant.
Ford
steered clear of exotic dishes like spiced gizzard and diced cow foot,
instead ordering traditional Nigerian egusi soup and pounded yam, for
£15, washed down with a non-alcoholic cocktail.
Restaurant manager Prosper Djoufak, 34, seated the pair when they came to dine.
He said: “I didn’t recognise him. But a customer realised and they asked me if it was Harrison Ford.
“At
first I said no. I didn’t believe it was him. I’ve watched his movies
but he’d lost weight so he looked a bit different. When I went back I
realised.
“I asked him if he was Harrison Ford and he said yes. He was just like a normal person. He was nice, very quiet.”
His
colleague Thierry Nkowyeb, 32, added: “We’ve had a lot of African
footballers come in here but Harrison Ford is such a big star. It was a
great honour for us.
“For him to come in and dine with us – we feel like we are in Hollywood as well.”
Credit:Standard.co.uk.
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