John Boyega was contacted by Disney executive following Star Wars criticism

John Boyega had a "very honest" conversation with a Disney executive after he took the studio to task over his sidelined role in the Star Wars franchise.

The British actor hit headlines in September when he publicly criticised Star Wars executives for marketing and then sidelining his character Finn over the course of the trilogy.

After Boyega's frustrations were made public in GQ magazine, a Disney executive reached out to him and he hopes his decision to take a stand will encourage them, and other Hollywood studios, to increase the diversity of their casts and crews.

"It was a very honest, a very transparent conversation," he said to The Hollywood Reporter. "There was a lot of explaining on their end in terms of the way they saw things. They gave me a chance also to explain what my experience was like.

"I'd hope that me being so open with my career, at this stage, would help the next man, the guy that wants to be the assistant DOP (director of photography), the guy that wants to be a producer. I hope that the conversation is not such a taboo or elephant in the room now, because someone just came and said it."

The Detroit star earned praise for his candid comments and the actor insists it's just his way of cutting through a "system" in which there's a lot of "pretence".

"I don't care about trying to mesh in with the system in order to secretly work it," he added. "That's just not my way. Everyone's just got to have an honest and open conversation. It doesn't have to be conflicting or rude, but it's a chance for us to actually, really and truly understand where each other is coming from."

His next role comes in Red, White and Blue, a part of director Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology of films about black Britons.