The weight of responsibility that was heaped on the young shoulders of Daisy Ridley was significant a decade ago when she nabbed the role of Rey in The Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams warned her to “Understand the scale. This is not a role in a movie. This is a religion for people. It changes things on a level that is inconceivable.” How right he was, and speaking with Inverse, Daisy looks at just how much she was changed – emotionally, professionally, even physically – by the experience, and how she’s preparing to return to the galaxy far, far away.
“When all of the craziness was going on,” she now recalls, “I was like, ‘I’m good. I’m good. I’m coping fine. Everything’s fine.’ And I was fine, for the most part. But I think what I was really grappling with was that it was my normal, but it was not normal to other people.”
Paradoxically, though she spent every day surrounded while making Star Wars, Ridley also found the experience isolating. “For friends and family, or any people who see something in a slightly different way than you do, there’s this projection of you, and you in that world, and how it feels to do this and that,” she explains. “And you’re like, ‘Well, actually, I’m just a human being, separate from that.’ It’s quite this wrestle, of the reality and the fantasy that’s often projected onto you.”
Ridley, for example, has been open in the past about living with both endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome — two extremely common disorders that afflict women — and skin problems she’s experienced as a result. And she’s spoken about the toll that stress and exhaustion took on her after The Force Awakens hit theaters; by the time The Last Jedi opened, Ridley’s anxiety was so severe that she’d developed holes in her stomach wall.
Eventually, she had to slow down, spending six months at home in London before The Rise of Skywalker started filming; the sabbatical allowed her to fall back on familiar routines and regain her footing. Practicing self-care became even more important for Ridley after her time in the galaxy far, far away came to a close.
“After the last Star Wars came out and everything was quiet, I was like, ‘What the f*ck?’” Ridley recalls. “I was grieving.” Letting go of relationships she’d formed on set, and of the time she’d invested in the franchise, was emotionally intense. The whirlwind ended as suddenly as it had begun, forcing her to a standstill. And then, a few months later, the world went into lockdown.
For Ridley, “having to sit and just be still in lockdown was incredibly helpful, in a way I hadn’t anticipated,” she reflects. “I realized there was a lot that I hadn’t processed properly.” As an actor, her job was to be surrounded by people all day. Returning home to “massive quiet,” she found herself at a loss as to how to proceed.
The project, due for release in 2026, is set to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and will lead the franchise in “a different direction,” Ridley has teased; she only knows the storyline for one film at present but isn’t ruling out any involvement in potential, as-of-yet-unannounced sequels beyond that.
- Hardcover Book
- English (Publication Language)
- 144 Pages - 03/05/2024 (Publication Date) - Titan Comics (Publisher)
