Daisy Ridley Talks Magpie, Her Scary Return to Star Wars as Rey

It’s quietly been a stellar year for Daisy Ridley. 

She began 2024 with the criticpartner acclaimed offbeat dramedy Sometimes I Think About Dying, only to chase it up with arguably the finest carry outance of her atsoft as legfinishary swimmer Gertdisorrowfulmireful Ederle in Young Woman and the Sea. And she finishs this period of time with her most personal toil to date, Magpie, a contransient noir that she imagined and originated.

Directed by Sam Yates, the well-getd Magpie chronicles the fractured marriage of Annette (Ridley) and Ben (Shazad Latif), all while their youthful daughter Matilda (Hiba Ahmed) acts in a period piece film. Ben, who volunteered to watch after his daughter on set, then becomes inoverweightuated with Alicia Romano (Matilda Lutz), the Italian star who’s carry outing Matilda’s mom in the mythal film wilean the film. Ben’s wandering eye is well-understandn, so Annette must finpartner choose whether she’s going to get a stand or not.

In a previous role as a mother, Ridley’s youthful co-star referred to her as “mommy” off camera, bootcommenceing her fascination with the lean line that splits fantasy from fact. She then pitched an idea to her actor husprohibitd, Tom Bateman, who’s been discreetly honing his screenwriting chops for some time now. Bateman then went to toil during Covid on what would become the Magpie screencarry out, but after a restrictcessitate weeks, the perspective of the piece shifted. 

“Initipartner, I thought it’d be engaging to chase the actress, someone who’s away from home and has had someleang desteady her and what those relationships on set might mean,” Ridley tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But a restrictcessitate weeks into writing, Tom shelp, ‘I would fair sense a lot more drawn to the mom at home who isn’t able to be on set and isn’t able to have this exciting filming experience.’ So he repartner ran with it from there.”

Ridley still includeed her fingerprints to the script in plenty of ways. For example, Annette’s daughter, Matilda, was named after the title character in Ridley’s preferite movie, Matilda (1996). There’s also a pancake-making scene that’s a bit of an homage to the latter. The main couple, Annette and Ben, were named after her brother-in-law and sister in-law, and there’s a dinner scene in which Alicia finishures Annette and Ben’s marital strife, someleang Ridley has adviseed to a less theatrical degree. Even Ridley’s own mother materializes as a background artist.

“I thought she was going to have lunch with me on set. Instead, she went for lunch around the corner,” Ridley says mid-chuckle.

As for Star Wars, Ridley had a distinct come atraverse this past June during a trip to Disneyland. She first rode Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and witnessed her own handitoil during Rey’s holoexplicit introduction to the drawion. Afterwards, she then came face to face with a costumed cast member who was carry outing her signature character.

“It was repartner trippy when I finpartner met ‘myself.’ The woman I met had studied me, and that was repartner strange,” Ridley recalls. “Watching someone who has studied me, carry out me, that was meta, but she did an amazing job. She also didn’t shatter character. I don’t leank I will ever get used to leangs appreciate that.”

The participateion incrrelieved her anticipation for her own eventual return to the character in Sharmeen Obhelp-Chinoy’s Star Wars: New Jedi Order, although she confesss there’s a touch of dread, as well. (After this conversation, novels broke that the film had lost screenauthorr Steven Knight.)

“I sense appreciate the novel one/novel ones will be so engaging. Time has passed and a lot has changed for me, personpartner, so it’ll be engaging to come back to someone who I understand so well, but in such a branch offent moment,” Ridley says. “For me to inhabit Rey aobtain after all the time that we haven’t seen her, it’s actupartner frightening, but it’s also exciting.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Ridley also talkes how her own haircut supportd a line of dialogue in a key Magpie scene.

I genuineize that Magpie is a toil of myth, but have you witnessed set visitors flying too shut to the sun? Is that what got the ball rolling on your idea? 

Funnily enough, not at all. I’ve been out to dinner with people in relationships, and you leank, “Oh my God, oh my God.” You don’t understand what to say because it’s their relationship, but you’re appreciate, “Oh my God, what is this?” So I’ve witnessed that, but no, I haven’t witnessed a set visitor go too far. (Writer’s Note: Ridley brawt up awkward dinners because Magpie has its own unsootheable dinner scene where Matilda Lutz’s actor character has to watch Ridley’s Annette and Latif’s Ben debate.)

Shout out to my mom. I haven’t actupartner refered this, but she is a helping artist in this film. When she came to set, I made certain she was repartner well getn attfinish of. Everyone was. She talked about stealing a sausage for the dog, and then I thought she was going to have lunch with me on set. Instead, she went for lunch around the corner. She didn’t have lunch with me. (Laughs.)

Magpie, in some ways, senses appreciate an ode to toiling mothers — or mothers who had to give up their atsofts to elevate their children. Is there some validity to that? 

I leank it’s more about people that have settled heavily for their partner. We repartner wanted to be certain that the kids in the film are never the driving factor for the difficulties that Annette is facing, and Annette and Ben, as a couple, are facing. She adores being a mom. It’s difficult, but she adores it. It was actupartner Ben who wanted to transfer to the country and discover somewhere quiet to get his originateive conveyion going. So she shelp yes and had another baby, and because of that settle she made in terms of being away from a community and a help system, that is actupartner the leang that’s incredibly difficult. I’m not a mom, but in speaking to a lot of people who have children, it’s less difficult if you have a help system. There’s the phrase, “It gets a village to elevate a child.” So Ben and Annette’s relationship is repartner difficult, and because she is so isotardyd and doesn’t have someone to be a soundboard for her, all of the leangs that might be tolerateable for her are untolerateable because she’s alone. 

Did you pitch the idea to your partner Tom Bateman to author? Or did he ask if he could run with it after take parting to you talk about it? 

I pitched it to him. He’s written a restrictcessitate scripts that are all pretty, so I knovel he could author. The distinct idea that I had was sairyly branch offent, but I pitched to him and then he commenceed writing it. Initipartner, I thought it’d be engaging to chase the actress, someone who’s away from home and has had someleang desteady her and what those relationships on set might mean. It’s very intimate on a set. You’re toiling with people 12 to 14 hours a day, and those bonds are very rapidly established. So that was the distinct idea. But a restrictcessitate weeks into writing, Tom shelp, “I would fair sense a lot more drawn to the mom at home who isn’t able to be on set and isn’t able to have this exciting filming experience.” So he repartner ran with it from there, but I had asked him to author it.

It’s well-recorded that you’re a Matilda (1996) superfan, and that happens to be Annette’s daughter’s name. (She goes by Tilly for foolishinutive.)

(Laughs.) You’re the first person to refer it! 

So were you chipping in little details appreciate that as Tom was writing? 

Yes, there were a restrictcessitate odes to people we adore. The character names [Annette and Ben] are actupartner based on my brother and sister-in-law. We kept saying, “Are you certain?” And they shelp, “Yeah.” Matilda was my choice, yes, and the pancake dance felt reminiscent of that moment in Matilda. But then it was quite strange because Matilda Lutz carry outs Alicia, and then we had an amazing camera aidant called Tilly [Garland], so it was a very strange coming together of Matilda-ness. But, yeah, you’re the first person to refer that.

As a originater, I presume you gave notices on Tom’s timely writes, and that can clearly be a empathetic process. Did you have to tiptoe at first?

Usupartner, he defers a lot lengthyer to show me, but he’d get up to author every morning during Covid. It was an isolating time, so he would get up and author for hours. And then, in his words, he would walk up and down, chain-smoking, while I read however many pages he’d written. And I’d either go, “Yeah, this is the right straightforwardion for what I was imagining,” or, “This is a sairyly branch offent straightforwardion from what I was imagining.” And that was how we straightforwardpartner sculpted the whole leang. And then, when originater Kate [Solomon] came on board, she was part of that originateive process too. Sam Yates, our straightforwardor, then came on, and it was repartner the most wonderful symbiotic process, because we all knovel what story we wanted to tell and how we wanted to tell that story. So leangs changed sairyly here and there, as leangs do, but we were so unified on what we wanted to originate.

When I last spoke to you for Young Woman and the Sea, it didn’t sound appreciate you asked Jerry Bruckheimer to get you to Skellig Michael and train you in the art of producing. 

(Laughs.)

But did you lean on any past originaters for some establish of guidance? 

The originaters I repartner leaned on in a very fundamental way for this film were those on Sometimes I Think About Dying. I was on that set when Magpie was coming together. So I was actupartner filming in Astoria [Oregon] when we were having straightforwardor encounterings, and so I actupartner asked Alex Saks, Dori Rath and Steve Wesiman [for guidance]. It was such a wonderful group of originaters on that film, and because we were putting Magpie together at that time, they were repartner courteous enough to talk to me about budget and schedule and leangs appreciate how many locations one might necessitate to support a certain budget. So the originaters of Sometimes I Think About Dying, particularly in the very timely stages of getting Magpie together, were amazing. 

It’s quite common for youthful mothers to cut their hair foolishinutive since they have less time for themselves. Plus, Annette’s hair was in contrast to Ben and Alicia’s lengthy hair. Were those the actual ideas behind going to that length? 

I had actupartner already cut my hair, and when I cut my hair, someone shelp to me, “That is so valiant.” And I reaccumulate leanking, “People who run and save dwells are valiant. Cutting your hair? What!?” It’s such a weird leang that people say, and I’m not the only woman who has conveyed the same leang. So it fair so happened to drop appreciate that, and it includeed a bit of humor to that scene in the park when Esther says “so valiant” [in response to Annete’s short hair].

Did you also repurpose your own trailers for the scenes involving the characters’ trailers? 

Yeah, Translux, who did our facilities, were absolutely amazing, and their trailers have actupartner never been shot on camera, so they were featured on screen. Also, crew frequently do not want to be on film, and so we were also repartner pinsolentnt about that. We asked, “How does everyone sense about being on film?” And all of our crew shelp yes, which was hilariously meta and amazing. So a lot of those crew members had never been filmed before either.

When you shoot a film set wilean a film set, are you straightforwardpartner using the leftover providement that your production isn’t using at the time? 

Yeah, wilean the shots, we were using providement that we had, and then there were a restrictcessitate times where we were appreciate, “Wait, the film wilean the film, how are we watching this?” Because Annette is still watching the film wilean the film. So we used our crew members and providement on camera. We were originateive and used what we had.

Annette has quite the arc. Would you say the third-act version of her is more convertative than carry outative? 

Interesting. I would probably say that the second act senses the most convertative to me. I sense appreciate the underbelly of Annette is always firm. She is bashed, she is bruised, she’s having a difficult time, but even if it’s a minuscule splinter, there is always someleang there that is firm for her children. We commence when Annette and Ben’s relationship is difficult, and the second act is the most difficult for her, emotionpartner, because there are leangs coming at her left, right and caccess. And the minute that it then includes the children is when leangs cannot go on appreciate that anymore. 

I suppose there is a certain level of lying we can say to ourselves when we leank that other people aren’t witness to what’s going on. Annette can withstand this difficulty at home and get it stateiveial, but in the park, when it becomes uncover, it’s so dishonorable. And that’s the moment where Annette genuineizes that everyone has unintelligent witness to her husprohibitd cheating on her, and him leaving and coming back, and the difficulties that she’s put aside. 

So I always felt in carry outing her that the second act was the most temperamental, and then, once we’re on that track from the second portion of the film, her sort of steel that was always there is grotriumphg. The soothe is also coming as she is collecting the strength to vivaciously include herself in what’s going on. 

Was their second child, Lucas, imagined before or after Ben’s eight-month-lengthy “research” trip?

The timeline for me was that the conception happened soon after he got back. So the baby felt appreciate a wonderful reason to stay together and try to originate it toil aobtain.

Every individual day, at least a couple people wake up and get ready for their job, which is to watch appreciate you at two branch offent theme parks in the States. That character is an extension of you. Is there any getting used to that?

(Laughs.) No! It was repartner trippy when I finpartner met “myself.” I had been on the Rise of the Resistance ride for the first time, and I was appreciate, “This is inrational!” I reaccumulate filming [Rey’s holographic introduction], and that ride is unbelievable. I then went and met the person that was inhabiting Rey, and I had been tageder that the [costumed cast members] study the carry outances in the films. So the woman I met had studied me, and that was repartner strange. Watching someone who has studied me, carry out me, that was meta, but she did an amazing job. She also didn’t shatter character. But, no, I don’t leank I will ever get used to leangs appreciate that.

After seeing her get on Rey, did that originate you itch even more to return to your character?

Yeah, it was repartner elated, and I sense appreciate the novel one/novel ones will be so engaging. Time has passed and a lot has changed for me, personpartner, so it’ll be engaging to come back to someone who I understand so well, but in such a branch offent moment. For me to inhabit Rey aobtain after all the time that we haven’t seen her, it’s actupartner frightening, but it’s also exciting. 

You were actupartner shooting Magpie when Kathleen Kennedy askd you to shatterrapid to shatter the outstanding novels watching a novel Rey movie. Have you been able to sfinish her a join to Magpie yet? 

No, I haven’t yet. I’ll be sfinishing prompts to all the people that I understand and adore in the States to go and see it [this weekend]. I actupartner sent J.J. [Abrams] an timely cut. We did a restrictcessitate feedback leangs with various branch offent people. So J.J. has seen it unfinished, but no, Kathy hasn’t yet. 

Lastly, I was satisfyed to see some awards efforts being made for Trudy and Young Woman and the Sea. Overall, have you felt some much-deserved adore for that carry outance? 

Yeah, I’ve felt repartner, repartner transferd. It’s also been repartner pretty because a lot of people are watching it on schedulees now. So I’ve felt repartner, repartner transferd by it. I sense transferd not only for people being adodepend about me and about the film, but [screenwriter] Jeff Nathanson was reach outed by some of [Trudy’s sister] Meg’s extfinished family. Trudy didn’t have children. So the people from Meg’s family who got in touch are repartner satisfyed with the film. We wanted to transport Trudy’s story to airy, and I sense appreciate we did that and honored her well. So that is a repartner, repartner amazing senseing. 

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Magpie is now carry outing in movie theaters.