“Daisy Ridley Opens Up About Her Return to ‘Star Wars’: The Biggest Challenge”

Despite her return to the role in an upcoming film that takes place a decade after the last installment, she has expressed some apprehension about reprising Rey’s character.

She shared, “The first three films were shot relatively close to each other. So, one of the concerns I have is: ‘Do I still remember how to embody Rey? It has been a while, and time has also progressed in the ‘Star Wars’ universe. Thus, there are many uncertainties about the events that have transpired during that time, both for me and the character; this in itself presents a significant challenge.”

“And then there’s the fact that I’ll be working with different actors and different filmmakers, which brings up different things,” she added. “And that is always progressive, I suppose, because it’s someone else’s interpretation.”

“There are so many different approaches when it’s a different team that I feel like it will already be a challenge to bridge the previous films and this one, because it’s been a long time,” she explained, going on to call it “an exciting challenge” and “a great one” because “every job is a ‘Who knows?’”

“You can have an amazing script, an amazing director, an amazing tick, tick, tick, tick, but you just don’t know what something might be,” she continued. “The potential is all there, but none of us knows [what will happen]. We do our work and we go home, and so much of it is in other people’s hands. It’s always a lesson in interpretation and point of view.”

In May 2024, the “Young Woman and the Sea” star told The Timesthat her role in the “Star Wars” franchise gave her leaky gut syndrome, as well as other health issues.

When asked about how the stress of her role impacted her health, she replied, “Oh, God! Essentially, it was a leaky gut. I was just knackered. I’d never travelled that much, or done press junkets, and my body deals with stress in a very physical way, so my gut was manifesting an emotional reaction to travelling around the world, people saying hello to me in the street.”

“And me going, “What’s going on?” And worrying. ‘Oh sh-t, should it be me?’ or ‘Am I good enough?’ And I only really felt I was by the third film, The Rise of Skywalker. By then, I felt, ‘OK, I was chosen for a reason.’ But it took a long time,” she admitted, adding, “It was super intense.”

There has been a lot of concern about her new “Star Wars” movie given how many times the project has changed hands. Although “Lost” creator Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson were initially attached to the project, they were fired and replaced by “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight.

However, as of January 2025, he has been replaced by “Ocean’s 12” scribe George Nolfi. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter, Ridley felt confident in the movie’s overall direction, emphasizing that Lucasfilm was working to ensure a quality film.

“People have talked about it a lot that the release date often affects films and how quickly things go into production. So the freedom to make sure that this script is the best way to tell this story is wonderful, and I don’t think any fans would want it to be rushed,” she explained. “The wait will be worth it. I know what George is working on, and he is a phenomenal writer. So I’m really looking forward to reading it, and yes, it’s all worthwhile.”

Last month, Ridley was dangling off the side of a skyscraper for her role in Martin Campbell’s “Cleaner.” In the film, Ridley played a character named Joey Locke, a former soldier who is now a high-rise window cleaner for a high-rise building in London that houses a prominent energy company that is taken over by a radical extremist group during a shareholder party.

Even though she did a lot of physical stunts in a galaxy far, far away, Ridley told THR that her role in “Cleaner” might have provided the greatest physical challenge of her career.

“At the end of it, I was so covered in cuts and bruises. There’s a moment where … I hit the set so hard that the lights and everything [started shaking]. I also thought I broke something, but I think I just bruised my bone,” Ridley revealed. “Also, the emotional maintenance at that level of angst was so high that I was exhausted by the end of the shoot.”

The film launched in theaters on February 21 and will be available to stream on VOD and digital platforms later this month on March 21, 2025.