An Episode With: Daisy Ridley, Anthony Hopkins
Tom Augustine looks back over the movies that resonated for him in the past 10 years
Skywalker. And even though the scene we shot originally, me and Carrie hugging, was obviously a whole different time and a whole different place, it’s so strange how things have been so eerily worked out. Literally, every single shot in the film of Carrie is Carrie. She’s central to the plot. It’s not that she’s featured in one scene, she’s a big part of this film.
You’ve also experienced fame since starring in this iconic franchise. What struggles did you endure and what have you learned?
Actually, I started going on the Tube and the bus again in London and that’s really been fine for the most part. People are looking at their phones anyway, so they aren’t looking up. But I live a super private life, and my friends and family have always been super private on my behalf which is really, really nice. Maybe living in London is lower key than other places. It was strange for a few years adjusting to pictures being taken or questions being asked of me but I am finding my boundaries now and I’m also figuring out how I want to hold myself in personal and professional ways.
You had to endure a certain amount of backlash when you signed on. That wouldn’t have been easy.
The main thing I heard was that my character, Rey, was a “Mary Sue” character. And I was like, “Well, even the term “Mary Sue” is sexist.” There was a big thing where people said that she had no struggles. I was, like, “Goodness me! I played feminist struggles!” It was so silly because she had a similar story to Luke [Skywalker] but there wasn’t the same reaction. But look, people are scared of change and you can only hope that eventually they’ll come on board.
How would you describe these last years?
I just turned 27 and even now I’m feeling very reflective. And the more I think about it, the more I think how crazy your early 20s are anyway, let alone having them experiencing something like this. I wish I took it in more and I wish I felt more grounded while we were doing it. And also, I wish I wasn’t so stressed about it all. But now I’m so appreciative that I’ve had this amazing experience and have grown and learned so much about what life is.
Your 20s have really been defined by Star Wars. Yes. I’ve got three years to go so maybe I can fill in some other things but I think my 20s will probably always be characterised by Star Wars. And to be honest, for the rest of my life I will be reminded of it and I will be asked questions about it. But because I’ve had such an amazing time, I feel very okay with that. It’s not something that I’m trying to run away from, I’m really proud of it.
How would you like the next five years to be defined?
Look, my family are awesome, my friends are awesome, I am just so happy with how life is, to the point that sometimes it’s scary. I’m like, “Please don’t give me like a massive curve ball!” So essentially, I would love the next five years to be filled with as many joyous moments as the five years that have just passed.
The Rise of Skywalker is in cinemas now.
What struck me about The Two Popes was how the art of conversation has fallen by the wayside, probably because of technology. Do you agree?
Well, I am not a sociological critic but maybe ... perhaps the cell phones have done some harm to us. But I find that through a sense of humour and laughing we give ourselves an openness to other people. Everyone is so angry and bitter today, nobody talks anymore, and everyone is in agony and outraged and you think, ‘Oh, come on, we’re all going to die!’ I can’t waste my time being miserable. I just enjoy it all, because if you take it all too seriously, you are dead. And if you have no laughter and no humour in your life you are dead.
Did you enjoy those moments in the movie with Jonathan Pryce, just actor to actor?
Yes. Someone asked me a question the other day, “What drew you to the part?” I said, “Well, I was offered it.” That was a good answer. I had never worked with Jonathan before. We saw each other once in a while but I didn’t know him although we both are Welshmen. And then I met with Jonathan and we just hit it off. We have two different styles of acting, he’s very loose and I tend to be kind of dissonant. I always like to know the lines and we had such a wonderful time and we had jokes together. We had a lot of fun together. Lovely man to work with and, when you are in Rome, you don’t need to act very much because it does it for you.
You’re playing a pope — can you talk about your spirituality?
Well, it’s a very personal thing. I used to be an atheist — or was I was agnostic? Ha! But things happened in my life some years ago and I began dawning over the years. And then recently I had an understanding that I’m actually pretty clueless. And it’s a wonderful feeling. I was in England doing a film called The Father and my wife is doing a little documentary on my life for some reason, so she interviewed Jodie Foster and people like that. We were in Wales and she went to see a schoolteacher of mine, and she said, “What was he like in school?” And she said, “Terrible, hopeless. We thought there was no hope for him once he left school. He couldn’t spell, he couldn’t play sports, he wouldn’t even be part of the school plays. And then 10 years later, he’s Laurence Olivier’s understudy!”
20. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (dir. George Miller)
Undoubtedly the finest action film of this decade, George Miller’s Mad Max update is an intricate and jaw-dropping showcase of death-defying practical effects and sleek, well-crafted storytelling.
19. UNDER THE SKIN (dir. Jonathan Glazer)
Jonathan Glazer’s unnerving sci-fi masterpiece recalls Stanley Kubrick in its glassy-eyed remove, revealing itself as a story of what it really means to be human from a perspective that is wholly alien.
18. A SEPARATION (dir. Asghar Farhadi)
This 2011 domestic drama, centred round the divorce of a couple in an impossible situation, is Iranian film-maker Asghar Farhadi’s finest. Finely-tuned performances and a shockingly engrossing story.
17. MOONLIGHT (dir. Barry Jenkins)
One of the most purely emotional, deeply moving stories of growing up, finding and losing love, and recovering from trauma to be made this decade.
16. PATERSON (dir. Jim Jarmusch)
Quiet, gentle, poetic and revelatory, Jim Jarmusch’s portrait of a New Jersey poet and bus driver finds deep spiritual power in the day-to-day mundanities of life. Featuring one of Adam Driver’s best performances, in a film that moves at its own leisurely pace.
15. FIRST REFORMED (dir. Paul Schrader)
Few films captured the mindset of an anxious generation looking at an uncertain future in a climate-changed world like First Reformed,
Paul Schrader’s exploration of the loss of faith and the discovery of extremism. Starring Ethan Hawke as a reverend utterly lost in the void.
14. FRANCES HA (dir. Noah Baumbach)
A loose millennial odyssey like no other, Frances Ha captures something indomitable about the generation it depicts, remaining universal in its portrayal of the painful drift you experience in your late-20s.
13. BEFORE MIDNIGHT
(dir. Richard Linklater)
Picking up roughly a decade since Before Sunset, Linklater’s third instalment of this remarkable love story traded in woozy romanticism for clear-eyed realism, putting the relationship of its heroes Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) under the microscope.
12. ONCE UPON A TIME IN … HOLLYWOOD
(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
This historically revisionist hangout movie is a consistently surprising treat, a film at once easy to watch but staggeringly complex in the way it opens up a dialogue with pop culture history, cinema and with the work of the director.
11. THE LOST CITY OF Z (dir. James Gray) Films like The Lost City of Z don’t really get made anymore, which makes its existence all the more special. Recalling romantic historical epics like Lawrence of Arabia and
Doctor Zhivago, James Gray’s finest film captures the hunt for a mythical hidden city in South America in a mode that is boldly oldfashioned.
10. MARGARET (dir. Kenneth Lonergan)
A film feared forever lost after it was shelved long-term in the early 2000s, Kenneth Lonergan’s epic depiction of teenage angst and post-9/11 shellshock finally saw its release this decade, resulting in a film fascinatingly out of time and yet insistently engrossing.
9. PHANTOM THREAD
(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
A delightfully wicked confection masquerading as a handsome period drama, Daniel Day Lewis has rarely been better (or funnier). It’s a film full of surprise, imagery and sheer delight.
8. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
(dir. Martin Scorsese)
Now in his 70s, America’s pre-eminent cinematic master Martin Scorsese showed no sign of slowing down with the controversial
Wolf of Wall Street, a film of sheer, bloated excess that reflected the intoxicating venomousness of capitalism like no other movie this decade.
7. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
(dir. Luca Guadagnino)
Luca Guadagnino’s earnest, woozy coming-ofage tale featuring a breakout performance from Timothee Chalamet was the best romance of the decade. Framed in swelteringly warm tones that immediately call back to the feeling of summers long gone, the film captures the ache and joy of first love like no other.
6. AMERICAN HONEY (dir. Andrea Arnold)
A film about America as it is today, for young people. Described at the time of its 2016 release as a “youthquake”, Andrea Arnold’s tale of a bunch of young people adrift on a cross-country odyssey without meaning captured the pain, uncertainty and passion of a generation.
5. CERTIFIED COPY
(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
Late Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami is one of the greatest film-makers ever; one of his last films, Certified Copy is an instant classic. It’s about a potentially by-chance meeting between a writer and a fan in Tuscany that quickly morphs into an elusive, profound plunge into the depths of identity and the human soul.
4. MEEK’S CUTOFF (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
Stranded and lost in the middle of nowhere in settler-era America, settlers seeking a new life begin to run out of water and we begin to understand the folly of colonialism as shown in Kelly Reichardt’s greatest film. A sparse, quiet, but blisteringly intense experience, with as haunting an ending as any in cinema.
3. THE SOCIAL NETWORK
(dir. David Fincher)
Watching The Social Network nearly 10 years since its original release is to be floored by its apparent ability to see far into the future. While others lauded the arrival of Facebook as the flagship of a new era, this film saw the social media site’s inception for what it really was — a breeding ground for misogynist, angry young men willing to sell everything to leave their mark.
2. THE MASTER
(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Paul Thomas Anderson, fresh from shooting
There Will Be Blood, evolved once again with The Master, a film of slippery intentions that taps into the intuitive, emotional strength of image-making rather than a strict narrative. Featuring astonishing performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master is a film to be felt, rather than understood.
1. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
(dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
A film that speaks to the depressive state of wannabe artists in a way that feels unflinchingly honest and somehow deeply comforting all at once. Inside Llewyn Davis is a bleak film, featuring a character as much an enemy to himself as anyone else. Yet in its bleakness is a glimmer of understanding in a harsh, inhospitable world.