Daisy Ridley on Playing Rey in the New Movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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As I posted last week, Disney invited me out to Los Angeles last week for an incredible whirlwind of press activities for the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie. Which by the way hits theaters in just a couple days!!! December 18! Get your tickets!

Well, there is a new character that I am sure you have all seen in the posters. This is Rey. Played but the absolutely stunning Daisy Ridley. She has been an unknown actress until this one, and believe me, she won’t be when the movie releases.

Early on Sunday we had interviewed Kathleen Kennedy and she had mentioned that Daisy’s character was like the Luke Skywalker of this new movie. With that in mind, one of the first questions that Daisy was asked in our interview was how she felt about that.

I wasn’t really thinking about myself in those terms when I was doing it, because I think that might have been slightly overwhelming. But now I can kind of see all of them in her. She’s a pilot so there’s Han. And she’s a kick-ass woman, so there’s Leia. But definitely the humble beginnings and an incredible story is the same as Luke. But obviously it’s very exciting that I’m a girl and more people hopefully will be able to relate to this story because of that.

Perhaps people that haven’t been able to relate so much before. I wasn’t a huge Star Wars fan before, so I’m hoping that with the fact that I’m as excited as I am, I hope that other people can feel that. And perhaps feel like this is something that they can now come on board to if they haven’t already felt that.

I am quite excited to see the movie and see just who this Rey is! 🙂

When we had popped in on the LA Press event before interviewing Daisy, she was being interviewed there. One of the questions that she was asked was if she had a “walk up song”, something that got her in the zone to play Rey. She immediately had responded with the Mulan song (in fact, she even sang a few notes).

So when we were interviewing her, one of the bloggers asked her if there were other female movie roles that she related to or thought about in playing Rey.

Matilda is my favorite film and though Rey can’t make jugs of water tip over, obviously the stories are different. But being in a place that isn’t fulfilling and that isn’t emotionally giving you what you need. And not being appreciated, Matilda’s obviously in a family that doesn’t do that to her and Rey has no one. But to go on a journey of self discovery and push yourself beyond limits and meet people who bring the best out of you. I can definitely see those parallels.

As I mentioned in the Harrison Ford interview, one of the bloggers had placed some action figures on the table before the interviews. For Daisy, he had put the Rey action figure up there. She was asked what it was like seeing herself as an action figure.

It’s cool, I haven’t seen this one with the rucksack. It’s cool. But it’s really cool, I’ve got this suitcase of stuff sent to me and I received it when I was alone, I’m sure many of you are on Instagram, I Instagrammed my reaction. I kind of put everything away in the suitcase and then I came back the next day and there were figures everywhere and me and my sister live together, I was like, what are you doing?! Put them away, that is so weird. Then I just moved out and she was like, oh my god, I can make the flat a shrine to you.

Yes, many laughs were had at that one 🙂 She was quite the character.

Next question, What characteristics of Rey do you see in yourself?

Obviously I see a lot of myself in her, because it’s me playing her. I think I quite like myself as a person. I think everyone can be hard on themselves but I think all too often people are far too hard on themselves and it’s not celebrated enough that people can actually enjoy themselves. But all of the qualities, maybe I possess in small things I think Rey has in greater amounts.

So I like to think I’m kind of brave but she’s far braver. I like to think I try and do the right thing but she far exceeds that. She’s not polished and she’s nuanced and I think that’s why she’s so brilliant and so relatable. But she’s far more of anything I think I could ever be.