Actress Daisy Ridley said she is “excited, but nervous” about the news that she will reprise her role at Rey in an upcoming installment of the Star Wars franchise.
“It feels so strange. I think the reality of it is I don’t think I will know how it will be until I’m there,” she said. “What if I can’t remember how to play her? It’s such an odd thing.”
Ridley is at SXSW for the premiere of her new movie Magpie, which she is the second film she’s produced. It’s the story of a young mother whose husband falls in love with an actress and leaves her to parent their child as she copes with the tumult of their relationship.
“This was really the first film where I was there from the ground up,” she said.
But Ridley’s breakthrough role was playing Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. She is celebrating the release of two other films this year, including Young Woman and the Sea, which is due to be released by Disney this summer, and survival thriller We Bury The Dead.
Ridley said she felt included creatively on the Star Wars series, and that comfort translated when she began working on other feature films. The last time she appeared in the franchise was in 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. Academy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct the upcoming installment, which is still in the script writing process. It’s believed the film will follow Rey as she builds the new Jedi Order.
“So it is exciting. All of the ‘what ifs’ are really strange,” she continued. “But I’m excited about the story, and as you said a lot has happened in my life and in my career, so I feel like a different performer. I feel like a different person, as we all do after a certain amount of years. So I’m curious. And also working with a new director is very exciting. It’s all at this time to be discovered, and I’m excited, but nervous, really, to see how it goes.”
