Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley talks about big role nerves

This content was originally posted in 7DAYS UAE website at: Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley talks about big role nerves Hard to believe now, but Mark Hamill was a complete unknown before playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, the co-stars who played Princess Leia and Han Solo, were hardly big names either pre 1977. Daisy Ridley follows in that great tradition for ‘Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.’ The young English actress had only worked on bit parts before landing the key role of Rey. What a first day that must have been then for the 23-year-old, starting work with director JJ Abrams, an industry giant, in the deserts of Abu Dhabi, a situation she described as “incredibly exciting”. She says: “I felt daunted working, period, as the Americans would say. I had never done a film before and never worked with famous people before so I felt nervous anyway. But after meeting them, it was ‘they’re just like a normal guy’ and then you are in a working environment with someone. “I’m sure everyone thought ‘what is she doing’, ‘could someone tell her what to do?’ ‘sorry guys can we go again?’ No it is a really nice crew and no one made me feel like I was out of my depth. I felt quite safe and the phrase I learned was ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ which I totally feel I did the whole way through. I wasn’t just working with incredibly talented actors, the crew in itself helped me feel encouraged and supported as opposed to a ‘go away, you are so bad’ thing. And seeing how a film was made, well I found that fascinating.” RELATED: Dream role for Boyega in Star wars Landing the part of Rey is without doubt a lucky break. But don’t forget the hard work that went into landing the role. Fellow English actor John Boyega spoke of the ‘X Factor’ style audition process he passed to land the part of Finn in the movie. With five auditions in seven months it was the same for Ridley. With such a big role up for grabs, the pressure must have been huge. With typical modesty, Ridley tried to play down the situation. She says: “Obviously, with my first one I turned up an hour early and could not stop going to the toilet and after the second one I built it up so much I just left and burst into tears. I thought ‘I’ve screwed it all up and it is never going to happen’. Then I started feeling more comfortable. Because during the first one, I was filming ‘Silent Witness’ (a long-running British TV crime series) and that was a three-week job, the longest job I had ever done, and that filled me with a bit of confidence. “I felt like a did a good job. I went home and literally ate a whole pack of biscuits to survive the crash after all the adrenaline. JJ phoned me a few days later.” According to the Star Wars website, Daisy’s character Rey is a ‘resilient survivor, a scavenger toughened by a lifetime of dealing with the cutthroats of the harsh desert world of Jakku’, as we return to the Star Wars universe 30 years after the Battle of Endor in the Return of the Jedi. The plot is still up for debate among fans but Rey’s personal journey is central to the first of the new trilogy. The actress needed to toughen up for the role physically, with five hours a day of training. But she’s still a big softie when it comes to one particular relationship onset – working with BB8, the cute droid seen in the trailers. Daisy says: “The guys who created BB8 are really skilled puppeteers – it felt like he was alive. He was given a soul by those guys. My best friend did tell me that BB8 was his favourite character and that was the same with me too.” Daisy also loved her outfit, created by Michael Kaplan, the acclaimed costume designer who worked on ‘Blade Runner.’ For good reason too. “With Rey being from Jakku, wearing a costume she made herself, it worked in the environment. It was super cool, unlike John (Boyega) who had to wear a Stormtrooper outfit!” chris.fraser@7days.ae Read the original story at: Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley talks about big role nerves