Despite the popularity of Disney’s “Star Wars” franchise, Daisy Ridley says her career stalled when she finished her run leading the film trilogy with 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.”
“There weren’t that many offers coming in,” Ridley said during a Sunday panel at SXSW in Austin. “It’s not that there wasn’t any… I remember finishing and thinking, ‘Oh, it’s quiet and strange.'”
According to Ridley, she didn’t feel fully comfortable leading the latest “Star Wars” trilogy until she had reached the final movie, “The Rise of Skywalker.” “It took, honestly, making the third film till I felt like ‘OK, I’m good. I deserve to be here,'” she said.
And then, after eight years of playing Rey, Ridley and the rest of the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the entire film and TV industry shut down. During that time, Hollywood wasn’t making anyone offers. “So it was a very strange time to sit with the quiet and, honestly, grieving a time of my life,” she said.
But over the past few years, Ridley says “It’s been really busy and amazing and I’ve got to do so many different things for so many different people,” including 2023’s “The Marsh King’s Daughter.” “It has been a different exploration of myself and my career,” she said.
Attending the SXSW festival to promote her new psychological thriller “Magpie,” which debuted Saturday night, Ridley spoke about her time as Rey during a one-on-one conversation panel with The Hollywood Reporter’s Mia Galuppo Sunday.
Ridley’s other upcoming projects include “Young Woman and the Sea,” “Women in the Castle,” “Cleaner,” and “We Bury the Dead” — plus, more “Star Wars.”
Last year, Disney and Lucasfilm announced Ridley would be returning to the “Star Wars” franchise in a new movie following Rey. Set after the events of“The Rise of Skywalker,” the movie will feature Rey as she attempts to rebuild the Jedi Order. The project is directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) and written by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). The movie marks Obaid-Chinoy as the first woman and first person of color to direct a “Star Wars” feature film.
