Daisy Ridley has received a lot of attention for playing the lead role in Star Wars over the past few years, spawning legions of fans and admirers on the internet, but the actress herself isn’t too keen on interacting with them online.
When Ridley first auditioned for the role of Rey (known then as Kira) in The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams outright told her that she lacked the basic acting skills to take on the job. Fast forward to late last year in The Rise of Skywalker and you’ll realize how much Daisy has grown into the character, even to the point of delivering such a stellar and believable performance as to make it one of the few redeeming qualities of the last movie in the Skywalker Saga. And barring the whole Mary Sue nonsense that Rey has had to deal with over the span of this trilogy, it’s safe to say that both the character and the actress are beloved by the community.
As for whether Daisy appreciates all the attention, though, well, we know that the actress used to have an Instagram account, but deleted it in 2016. This coincided with her controversial statements about controlling gun violence, for which she came under fire, ultimately compelling her to delete the account and be done with the negative backlash.
According to what Ridley shared with DragCast in a new interview, though, those attacks merely served as a reminder that she didn’t even want to be on social media in the first place.
“I think everybody tried to mold that into something else. It really wasn’t a story,” she revealed. “I was asked to go on it, and, at the time, I was like, ‘Okay,’ and then it got to the point where I didn’t want to be on it and I was at my friend’s house in L.A., and I remember being like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be on Instagram,’ and they were like, ‘Well, why don’t you come off?’ and I was like, ‘Oh.’ And it was really a nice, autonomous decision. Because I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t actually have to be on it. This is nice.’ And I always had a limit to what I shared anyway and, honestly, my life isn’t that exciting. So there were a lot of separate things.”
The actress went on to confess that she’s the kind of person who doesn’t like “phones at the table,” maintaining that while it’s an amazing way for people to reach each other and communicate, folks have lost touch with true connection, preferring to look at their phones “instead of talking to each other.”
Do you agree with the Star Wars actress, though? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
