Daisy Ridley Describes Rey’s New State of Mind in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

Daisy Ridley spoke with Vanity Fair for a new feature on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and discussed Rey’s growth since the last film. Ridley noted that Rey is a more confident person in the JJ Abrams-directed ninth film, which opens on December 20th. Highlights are below:

On how she internalizes her acting when Rey uses the Force: “I literally visualize it. When I was lifting rocks I was visualizing the rocks moving. And then I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I made it happen!’ And obviously there’s loads of rocks on strings, so, no, I didn’t. But I visualize that it’s really going on.”

On Rey’s growth in Rise of Skywalker: “It’s nice having that shot at the beginning of the teaser [of Rey facing off with a First Order ship]. Because I think it’s quite a good visual representation of where she is now: confident, calm, less fearful. It’s still sort of overwhelming but in a different way. It feels more right – less than inevitable and more like there’s a focus to the journey.”

On Rey’s mindset toward Kylo Ren’s rejection of his family: “I think there’s a part of Rey that’s like, dude, you fucking had it all, you had it all. That was always a big question during filming: you had it all and you let it go.”