Ridley staying on track with ‘Star Wars’
After trip on Orient Express, star talks Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker and porgs
Daisy Ridley can’t escape her Star
Wars fame, even as a mysterious murder suspect riding the opulent 1930’s train in Murder on the Orient Express.
While filming Murder (in theaters now), director Kenneth Branagh offered to let Ridley use a lightsaber in a key scene (she declined), and co-star Josh Gad peppered her with Star Wars questions offset on video.
We, too, had a few queries as Ridley gets set to ride again as Rey in Star
Wars: The Last Jedi (opening Dec. 15). Here’s what we learned:
Ridley is pro-porgs. (Rey, not.)
The free world fell in love when the chubby porgs made a screaming debut in The Last Jedi trailer last month. It hit Ridley, too. She lists a porg toy as one of her prize possessions.
But Rey won’t fall for the creatures’ charms. “Rey, honestly, is too wrapped up in her own journey to pay attention to porgs. Which is a sad thing.”
Snoke will provide the worst kind of ‘test’ for Rey.
Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) ain’t pretty and acts worse. “He looks mental. Snoke is an evil guy, if you can call him a guy,” Ridley says.
Last Jedi’s trailer shows Rey screaming under his torture. “It was painful. My throat hurt after that one.”
“Snoke is one of those tests for Rey,” she adds. “And when I say testing, it’s the worst use of ‘testing’ ever.”
Watch for Kylo Ren and Rey time.
Is there something special going on with Rey and Dark Side-dwelling Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)?
Ridley choses her words carefully. “These are two people who represent two very different sides of life, good and evil,” she says. “That’s going to be explored more in this.”
Luke is annoyed with Rey.
Rey is expecting Luke Skywalker to be thrilled to get his lightsaber back. But he’s not happy to see her.
Don’t fret. Skywalker takes “a tremendous journey from the beginning of the relationship to ultimately where they end up in the film.”
Judi Dench really doesn’t know squat about Star Wars.
Dench seems to be a Star Wars nut, grilling Ridley in one of Gad’s videos on fan minutiae such as whether she had been tested for midi-chlorians, living cells in tune with the Force (from Episode I — The Phantom Menace).
She played the part well, but Dench doesn’t have Force fever.
“She was like, ‘Medi ... midi-chlorians, what is that?’ Josh and I had to explain,” says Ridley, who adds she and Gad had to stifle their laughs when cameras rolled.