Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley, who played Rey in the Disney trilogy, recently detailed she was upset after she read headlines following the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The actor appeared on DragCast, where she talked about her Star Wars experience and was initially asked about how her legacy as a Star Wars actor has changed.
Ridley answered, “It’s changed film by film, honestly. Like 98% it’s so amazing. This last film it was really tricky. January was not nice.”
She added, “It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like, ‘Where’s the love gone?'”
“I watched the documentary, the making-of this week, and it’s so filled with love, and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that’s so filled with love and then people…You know everyone is entitled to not like something, but it feels like it’s changed slightly. But I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.” Ridley responded.
Ridley is then asked if the culture has changed due to social media with fans feeling they have a creative say.
She answered, “I don’t know. I think in general people share so much on social media that like if I went to it, well I don’t have social media, but if I went to a film and didn’t like it, I just wouldn’t tweet about it. But it’s such a conversation and it always has been again. So it’s sort of fine.”
She then detailed that she was upset after reading headlines in reaction to moviegoers viewing Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, “I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my newsfeed in January and trying to not see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like ‘Oh my god this is so upsetting.'”
She continued, “So it’s been tricky, but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be part of it. It’s a funny thing.”
Ridley Was Previously Unsurprised By The Last Jedi Backlash
While Ridley notes she was upset after reading headlines regarding The Rise of Skywalker, she had previously stated she “wasn’t surprised” that Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi received the fan backlash it did.
Related: Daisy Ridley on Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi Backlash: “I Wasn’t Surprised”
When asked about the backlash the film received, she told USA Today, “I wasn’t surprised, no. It’s just a different thing.” She went on to say, “Everyone’s going to have an opinion now anyway on the internet, but I also think it’s fair.”
She added, “If people hold something incredibly dear and think they know how it should be and it’s not like that, it’s fair for people to think they were done wrong.”
Ridley did add the caveat, ““It doesn’t mean they were – ultimately, Rian’s a filmmaker and one person can’t dictate how a film is supposed to be – but freedom of expression, sure.”
Related: Daisy Ridley Admits She Had Reservations About The Last Jedi’s Script
Ridley had also previously admitted her own reservations with Johnson’s The Last Jedi script, “Well I, like Mark [Hamill], had some reservations about the script. I thought, ‘Where is John [Boyega]? He’s away from me, and I don’t want to be away from him.’”
Daisy Ridley Explains Why She Left Social Media
During her interview with DragCast, Ridley was also asked why she left social media.
She answered, “I think everybody tried to mold that into something else. It wasn’t really a story. Like I was asked to go on it. And at the time I was like, ‘Okay.’ And then it sort of got to the point where I didn’t want to be on it.”
Ridley continued, “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.’ It was really a nice, autonomous decision.”
She added, “Because I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t actually have to be on it. This is nice.’ And I always had like a limit to what I shared anyway. And, honestly, my life isn’t that exciting. So there were a lot of separate things.”
Ridley then added she has an aversion to social media when she was asked about how she tries to make people feel their worth in “a difficult world where social media and bullying, and people’s opinions seem to pervade everything.”
“I think people do it really, really well. And it is an amazing way for a lot of people to reach other people. But I think maybe as well, the position I was in, I just felt like, I don’t know…,” Ridley answered.
She then went on to detail her aversion to social media in favor of a more personal connection, “A lot of what I believe in is about communication and less distractions or whatever. I don’t like phones at tables, all of that sort of stuff.”
Ridley continued, “And I also think it’s that thing of not only… I don’t know, it’s like people need to be more connected and I think people think they’re more connected on their phones but I don’t believe that.”
“So it’s also a secondary thing of, it’s a good way to get a message out but then are we all just be looking at our phones instead of talking to each other and letting life slip by while we’re scrolling,” Ridley added.
She concluded, “It’s a really tricky one to handle and I know people do it really, really well. I’m just not that person.”
What do you make of Daisy Ridley’s comments?