Daisy Ridley On Social Media Silence, Fan Backlash, & Why This Is Just A Job

Daisy Ridley doesn’t particularly love having her picture taken. It may seem counterintuitive for someone who makes their living in front of a camera, but the truth is that the 27-year-old, who became a household name when she was cast as Rey in the current Star Wars trilogy just five years ago, visibly relaxes when the shoot part of the morning is over and we can just talk. It’s indicative of her relationship to “celebrity”; where others might use grander language to talk about the film industry, for Ridley, a set is her “workplace” and acting is her “job.” It’s a job she’s dedicated to, but she won’t let her status as an action figure, sci-fi icon, and Halloween costume dictate how much of her life she’s willing to share with the world.

“There is this massive expectation on actors to have a very loud voice,” she explains, curled up on a couch in the Bustle green room. As for how loud she wants to be? That’s something Ridley is “still figuring it out.”

For now, it seems that she’s eager to let the work speak for itself. In her first leading post-Rey role (she also appeared in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and voiced a Beatrix Potter character in 2018’sPeter Rabbit), Ridley reinvents one of Shakespeare’s most tragic figures. Ophelia, now out in theaters and on digital and on demand,based on the novel by Lisa Klein, tells the story of Hamlet from the perspective of the Prince of Denmark’s doomed paramour — though in this version she’s not so doomed and not so passive, either.

Continue reading