Daisy Ridley has said that the backlash against her role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was “still upsetting” nearly five years after the film was released.
Ridley was speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and said of the reaction to the 2019 film: “It’s still upsetting. You don’t want people to feel like you’ve not served the thing they’re a fan of. But [The Last Jedi] was so divisive … it felt like the first one everyone was responsive in the same way. The second, super divisive. The last one, super divisive … It didn’t change how I felt about it.”
Directed by JJ Abrams, The Rise of Skywalker was the ninth film in the Star Wars “Skywalker saga”, following the successful release of Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 and the mixed response to the Rian Johnson-directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017. The Rise of Skywalker remains the lowest performing of the “sequel trilogy” element of the Skywalker saga, with revenue of $1.08bn worldwide (and a relatively poor $515m in North America). Ridley played Rey in all three films.
Horowitz also asked Ridley about the “kiss moment”, referring to Rey’s romantic connection with Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver). Ridley said: “It felt earned … What was interesting again is intentionality. My feeling in that moment was that it was a goodbye, and that felt earned. You can call a kiss a thousand things, but I felt it was a goodbye. That whole scene felt so emotional and I felt I was saying goodbye to the job, too.”
Ridley added that, while shooting a final scene on her own, she “started crying my eyes out because it really felt like goodbye”.
Ridley has previously spoken about the stress involved in making the Star Wars films, saying in an interview with GQ in 2019 that she “developed holes in her gut wall” as a result. “My body was just fucked up. I got tests done and it turned out my body was taking in no nutrients. I was just like a little skeleton and I was just so tired. I was becoming a ghost.”
Ridley is also due to play Rey in a new Star Wars film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, saying that she had initially been uncertain after being offered the role by Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy. In a recent interview with Variety, Ridley said: “I’m excited to do the job, but not because Sharmeen is a woman. Her documentaries are amazing. Her idea for the story is cool as shit. No spoilers, but she gave me a rundown of the entire story. If it weren’t amazing, I would have been like, ‘OK, call me in five years.’ But it’s worthwhile.”
