HAVING SURVIVED A FEVERISHLY DEBATED STAR WARS TRILOGY, DAISY RIDLEY IS FORGING HER OWN PATH — AND TAKING CONTROL

WORDS IANA MURRAY DYLAN COULTER

Daisy Ridley, photographed exclusively for Empire in Austin, Texas, on 10 March 2024.

FOR DAISYR IDLEY, THE THRILL COMES FIRST AND THE FEAR COMES LATER .

While wading in the middle of the Black Sea for Joachim Rønning ’s rousing 1920s-set biopic Young Woman And The Sea, in which she stars as Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel, Ridley’s aversion to open-water swimming confronted her fully.

“You know when you go in the sea?” she asks.

“I never go beyond where I can see my feet.

The whole thing was such an exploration of things I don’t really like.” Her voice sing-songs:

“The lies we tell for the jobs we do!”

Of course, the London-born actor is well-acquainted with treacherous waters. At the age of 21, Ridley was plucked from anonymity to lead the Star Wars sequel trilogy as Rey, a preternaturally gifted Jedi whose fraught lineage is perhaps one of the most debated plot-twists in modern movie history. No pressure when your CV to date mainly consisted of a bit-part on Casualty and a Morrisons ad.

A decade later, Ridley’s ludicrously busy calendar speaks to the ways she’s taken her career by the reins, honing in on subdued character dramas about women who correct their futures through their own sheer will. The stakes vary, from an introvert struggling to connect (Sometimes I Think About Dying) to an athlete achieving superhuman feats (Young Woman And The Sea) to a child actor’s mother failing to keep her marriage together (the forthcoming Magpie, which she conceived and co-wrote). Add to that a step-up behind the scenes —she has production credits on all three of those films —and it’s clear that she’s levelling up. And then there’s the upcoming Rey movie, which promises Ridley’s return to Star Wars and all the exhilarating and terrifying wonders that entails.

Calling Empire on a morning off while she films survivalist thriller We Bury The Dead in Australia, she opens up about what it means to dive back in.

At the beginning of Young Woman And The Sea, Trudy only knows how to doggy paddle. It looks like really hard work to fake being a bad swimmer.