Daisy Ridley Reveals Her Biggest ‘Challenge’ Returning To ‘Star Wars’

The comparatively unknown actress turned a family identify when she starred as Rey in 2015’s “The Drive Awakens.” She reprised her function in 2017’s “The Final Jedi” and 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” which basically shut the e-book on the Skywalker saga.

Though she is returning to her function in a brand new movie set roughly ten years after the 2019 film, she does have some issues about stepping again into Rey’s Jedi boots.

“The primary three movies, we did pretty shut collectively within the grand scheme of issues. So one of many issues is: ‘Do I bear in mind easy methods to be Rey? It’s been some time, and time has handed in [the ‘Star Wars’] world. So there are lots of questions on what has occurred in that point, each for me and for the character; that in and of itself seems like a problem,” she defined.

“After which there’s the truth that I’ll be working with totally different actors and totally different filmmakers, which brings up various things,” she added. “And that’s all the time progressive, I suppose, as a result of it’s another person’s interpretation.”

“There are such a lot of totally different approaches when it’s a special workforce that I really feel like it should already be a problem to bridge the earlier movies and this one, as a result of it’s been a very long time,” she defined, happening to name it “an thrilling problem” and “an important one” as a result of “each job is a ‘Who is aware of?’”

“You may have a tremendous script, a tremendous director, a tremendous tick, tick, tick, tick, however you simply don’t know what one thing could be,” she continued. “The potential is all there, however none of us is aware of [what will happen]. We do our work and we go house, and a lot of it’s in different folks’s arms. It’s all the time a lesson in interpretation and viewpoint.”

In Might 2024, the “Younger Girl and the Sea” star advised The Timesthat her function within the “Star Wars” franchise gave her leaky intestine syndrome, in addition to different well being points.

When requested about how the stress of her function impacted her well being, she replied, “Oh, God! Basically, it was a leaky intestine. I used to be simply knackered. I’d by no means travelled that a lot, or performed press junkets, and my physique offers with stress in a really bodily means, so my intestine was manifesting an emotional response to travelling around the globe, folks saying whats up to me on the street.”

“And me going, “What’s happening?” And worrying. ‘Oh sh-t, ought to it’s me?’ or ‘Am I adequate?’ And I solely actually felt I used to be by the third movie, The Rise of Skywalker. By then, I felt, ‘OK, I used to be chosen for a cause.’ However it took a very long time,” she admitted, including, “It was tremendous intense.”

There was lots of concern about her new “Star Wars” film given what number of instances the mission has modified arms. Though “Misplaced” creator Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson had been initially attached to the project, they had been fired and changed by “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight.

Nevertheless, as of January 2025, he has been changed by “Ocean’s 12” scribe George Nolfi. When requested by The Hollywood Reporter, Ridley felt assured within the film’s total course, emphasizing that Lucasfilm was working to make sure a top quality movie.

“Folks have talked about it quite a bit that the discharge date usually impacts movies and the way rapidly issues go into manufacturing. So the liberty to make it possible for this script is the easiest way to inform this story is fantastic, and I don’t assume any followers would need it to be rushed,” she defined. “The wait will likely be value it. I do know what George is engaged on, and he is an outstanding author. So I’m actually trying ahead to studying it, and sure, it’s all worthwhile.”

Final month, Ridley was dangling off the facet of a skyscraper for her role in Martin Campbell’s “Cleaner.” Within the movie, Ridley performed a personality named Joey Locke, a former soldier who’s now a high-rise window cleaner for a high-rise constructing in London that homes a distinguished vitality firm that’s taken over by a radical extremist group throughout a shareholder get together.

Despite the fact that she did lots of bodily stunts in a galaxy far, distant, Ridley advised THR that her function in “Cleaner” may need offered the best bodily problem of her profession.

“On the finish of it, I used to be so coated in cuts and bruises. There’s a second the place … I hit the set so exhausting that the lights and all the things [started shaking]. I additionally thought I broke one thing, however I believe I simply bruised my bone,” Ridley revealed. “Additionally, the emotional upkeep at that degree of angst was so excessive that I used to be exhausted by the top of the shoot.”

The movie launched in theaters on February 21 and will likely be out there to stream on VOD and digital platforms later this month on March 21, 2025.