You’d struggle to find many film fans familiar with Daisy Ridley prior to The Force Awakens.
That largely comes down to the fact that the English actress was just 23 when Disney and director J.J. Abrams breathed new life into the dormant Star Wars machine, so you can imagine how she felt somewhat apprehensive about headlining what was arguably one of the biggest movies of the past 10 years.
In fact, Ridley recently sat down with Vulture for a candid chat about her post-Force Awakens anxiety, and how she developed holes in her stomach wall (!) due to stress and the overall strain of her training regime.
I think it was — I was training in a way I’d never done. It’s a lot for a body to take. It was a massive press tour, going to all of these countries I’d never been to. It’s hard on your body to do things like that. I basically did not properly take care of myself.
And not just the training regime during the throes of production, but the global press tour that a film like Star Wars: The Force Awakens entails. By the end of it, Daisy Ridley was ready for a well-deserved massage. But, as she tells Vulture, lessons were learned, and she soon resumed her training for Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
So now it’s like, ‘A massage would be good! A facial would be good’. All that talk about self-care — it’s really important. I still train really hard, but in a way that’s much gentler on your body. I’ve realized that you don’t have to absolutely kill yourself in order to be healthy. It was a big lesson.
Ridley returns later this year with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It signals the end of an era for Lucasfilm’s beloved saga, and while the studio’s future plans have been cloaked in a thick veil of secrecy, one thing is immediately clear: Daisy Ridley won’t be reprising the role of Rey beyond 2019.
