Calling myself a ‘tomboy’ was not right, says Star Wars star
WHEN Daisy Ridley found fame with her role in the new Star Wars films, she told interviewers that she had grown up as “a little tomboy”.
Two years on, she has revised her language and thinks the description is sexist. “I now have an issue with the word ‘tomboy’. Why has there got to be a ‘boy’ in it?
“I was like, ‘Hold on, you’re saying a little girl is actually like a boy because she likes to be active?’ In terms of energy, I would say I do have a strong masculine energy as well as a feminine. But I was a girl. I am one,” she told GQ magazine.
Her views have changed since 2017, when she was asked about her childhood. “I was a little tomboy,” she said then. “Loud. Often very sassy. Insane amounts of energy.”
Ridley, 27, plays Rey in the Star Wars sequels. When it emerged that the character came from humble beginnings, upending theories that she was the daughter of Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, some fans were upset.
That did not sit well with Ridley, who GQ described as “an ardent antielitist”. She said: “Here’s the thing. I’m going to tell you something so shocking for Americans but not for Brits: I don’t massively care about the Royal family. I am not a royalist.
“The other day there was a story that the Queen uses six rooms in the [Buckingham] palace. Six. How is that a good thing? It’s prime real estate.”
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is released later this month. Ridley said that calling time on the series was an emotional moment. “I did this embarrassing speech that I can’t remember. It was so sad,” she recalled.
Returning home to London for a break after years in Hollywood has been a joy, she added, as she could spend her time doing the washing. “This was, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to do a load today’. It was lovely.”
The full feature is in the new issue of British GQ.