Daisy’s a Force for the future
ONCE upon a time, Daisy Ridley spent a Christmas at a shopping centre, playing an elf. When she was upgraded — to a princess! — she was over the moon.
So imagine what she felt when she landed one of the top roles in the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.
The 23-year-old London-born actress has pulled pints in pubs, worked in retail, appeared (hanging upside down) in a short film, travelled to Australia and New Zealand — and seems to have both feet firmly planted on the ground.
And she’s determined that the new Star Wars epic, which opens in the UK on December 17 won’t change her, either.
To that end, Daisy said she’d received some helpful advice on how to stay real from an unexpected source — Emma Watson.
The pair met in Covent Garden, and Daisy asked Emma — who was just 11 when she made the first Harry Potter film — what to expect and how to deal with it.
‘I asked her some stuff that I hadn’t been able to ask Harrison [Ford] and Carrie [Fisher],’ Daisy told me.
They also talked about Emma’s work on the HeForShe equality campaign. ‘She’s doing amazing things,’ Daisy said. ‘And I am not.’
Well, perhaps not yet, but give it time. Daisy believes eventually she will be able use the Force of Star Wars for good and ‘be able to have a voice’ — and lend it to causes involving young women and self-esteem issues.
But first things first: ‘I would love to be able to do so many other things as well, but I’d love to have a great career as an actress,’ she told me.
SOON after she started filming the movie for director J.J. Abrams, Daisy was signed up by a major Hollywood agency and taken on by the publicist who has guided Kate Winslet’s career for several years.
Often when I meet newcomers who have become instant ‘names’ they’re insufferable. Daisy’s the complete opposite. She is polite, genuinely curious, with a ready laugh. I can’t vouch for her acting, though I did watch the short film she made when she was in her teens.
‘Oh don’t!’ she cries. ‘You mean the one where I end up hanging upside down?
‘I’m proud of everything I’ve done — but I was so young.’
Daisy won the role of Rey in The Force Awakens after five auditions and didn’t for a minute think she’d get the part.
She was at a performance of Oedipus Rex at the Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End and couldn’t tell the friend she was with why she had to miss most of the first act — because she was outside trying to return a call to from Abrams. She finally reached him and was elated when he told her the news.
‘I remember I could hear the play going on inside. Obviously, something monumental had happened in my life, but no one else knew. It was weird. I saw the rest of the play and then went home on the Tube.’
She told her parents and two of her sisters who were living at home and then, not long after, she found herself seated between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
‘The director J.J. introduced him to me as Harrison Ford and he said: “No, it’s Harrison.” I said: “Oh my God! My mum loves you!’ and he was like: “Really?” And I realised it was something that made him feel older,’ she said with a sad smile.
Her character Rey has spent her life scavenging on the rubbish dump planet of Jakku. She is then pulled into an adventure along with a stormtrooper called Finn, played by John Boyega.
Daisy said people have been reading too much into stories about her background in the film. There is a twinkle in her eye as she swats away rumours that Rey’s the secret daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia.
Rey, she said, is a young woman by herself, so of course she has to protect herself. She’s also lonely. ‘ Imagine you’re left on your own at five!’ she said.
Loneliness is not a problem for Daisy, who has two half-sisters from her photographer dad’s first marriage and two sisters from his second. She’s the youngest. She went to school in West London till she was nine, and then boarding school because ‘I was a little bit naughty — like a real rough little tomboy’.
But boarding school was a performing arts college in Tring and she thrived. She did short films and played a corpse on Casualty. And there was that shopping centre gig. Now she’s got the Force behind her, there’ll be no stopping her.