When Star Wars finally came back to the big screen with Star Wars: The Force Awakens it was a big deal for fans, but it was an even bigger deal for Daisy Ridley. The largely unknown actress had taken a massive step into the spotlight as part of what was virtually guaranteed to be one of the biggest movie releases ever. It’s not surprising that Ridley had an emotional reaction to seeing herself on the big screen as Rey, but the reason seeing the film made her cry is a bit more surprising.
Speaking with French-language Clique, Ridley admits that when she first saw The Force Awakens she broke down in tears because initially she thought she was terrible in the movie. Ridley said (translated from French)…
After the screening of the first film, I told myself that I was shit and that I was really worthless. I cried my eyes out thinking I was the worst thing that ever happened to Star Wars. I had never seen myself in a leading role, so for me it was something unexpected and very surprising, it overwhelmed me.
It’s certainly not too shocking that Ridley was overwhelmed by the experience to the point that her emotions got the better of her. As she says, she’d never been in a leading role like that before, so she had nothing to compare to what she was seeing. On top of that, her first leading role was in a Star Wars movie. The seventh Star Wars film ever, or the eighth now if you watch the Star Wars movies in order, Ridley knew the eyes of the world would be on her, so she was overly critical of her performance.
And while there have certainly been those that have been critical of Ridley’s performance, most of that has been relegated to sexists on social media. Whatever people think of the new trilogy in general, a lot of fans love Daisy Ridley and they love Rey as a character. Once Daisy Ridley realized most people didn’t believe she was the worst thing to happen to Star Wars she was hopefully able to come to terms with her feelings and see her performance differently.
Lucasfilm doesn’t have a problem with Daisy Ridley, as the Star Wars franchise is bridging her back in a new movie. And the fact that Ridley is willing to return indicates she is at peace with her performance. The as-yet-untitled movie will see Ridley as an older Jedi training a new generation. The movie was expected to be the next of the upcoming Star Wars movies until yesterday when we learned that The Mandalorian & Grogu, a new movie based on The Mandalorian Disney+ series, and directed by Jon Favreau, is slated to go into production later this year and thus will likely be the expected 2025 Star Wars release.
