Lucasfilm/UNILADAfter 42 years (Christ has it been that long?) the final instalment in the epic Skywalker Saga, Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, has finally arrived in cinemas.
So to celebrate we went down to London to talk to none other than Daisy Ridley. As you can imagine this was tremendously exciting for a fan like myself, and you may be wondering what nuggets of Star Wars gold I managed to tease out of her?
Well – I’ll be honest – none, because I asked her bugger all about Rise of Skywalker. Instead, I asked her ten questions I thought would be funny and used it to further my own career by launching a new feature series, The Ten.
LucasfilmIn fact, if I’m honest, I only came up with this idea as a way to see movies early, and I never really expected any actors in their right mind to let us ask them The Ten. Disney though clearly took one look at the questions and thought: ‘Yeah, we’ll sit our top talent down with these clowns to ask them unfathomably stupid questions!’ Thanks for the faith, Disney.
Anyway, this is The Ten…
UNILAD: You’ve got a time machine, where’s the first place you’re going?
Daisy Ridley: I’m going to.. the Lis… pft, pft [laughs] … I’m going to the Elizabethan era because I feel that I am reincarnated from Elizabeth I. Not that I feel I have any sense of majesty in myself! But I remember being in a history class and someone asked me a question that I shouldn’t have known because I wasn’t around then, it was quite an obscure question as well and I knew the answer, so I was like, ‘this must be it’.
UNILAD: You do realise that the headline you’re going to see now is ‘Daisy Ridley claims she is the reincarnation of Elizabeth I’, right?
Daisy Ridley: [Laughs] Yeah! More like ‘Daisy Ridley, You Are A Dick, No You’re Not The Reincarnation of Elizabeth I’.
LucasfilmUNILAD: What’s the most famous-person thing you’ve ever done?
Daisy Ridley: Oh… probably get my hair and make-up done to talk about a movie I’m in, that’s about it.
UNILAD: Richard E. Grant told us that this is the difference between American and English actors, that only Americans ask for free stuff…
Daisy Ridley: Well if you were interviewing John [Boyega], he gets everything like he calls up, so he gets free PlayStations he gets free this, that and the other, but I’m far too well behaved to do that. Very nice people do occasionally give me things though… but I don’t ask for that. Also Richard [E. Grant] has definitely got tickets to Bab [Barbara Streisand] concerts before, don’t forget [laughs].
LucasfilmUNILAD: If you weren’t an actor, what do you think you’d be doing with your life?
Daisy Ridley: A psychologist, because I’m very interested in what makes people tick.
UNILAD: Interesting, have you ever tried to analyse your Star Wars castmates then?
Daisy Ridley: Ummm, well yeah because it’s interesting, to look at someone as an individual and then look at them in a group and how they act individually, that’s something I’ve always found fascinating.
LucasfilmUNILAD: You have one wish and it has to be selfish, what do you wish for? No world peace
Daisy Ridley: No world peace?
UNILAD: No, no bollocks like that or ending world hunger, it has to be selfish.
Daisy Ridley: [Smirking] I’m going to give you an answer that’s going to make you go ‘Ughhh’, I’m really happy with what I have so I’d wish for the genie or whatever is offering me the wish to go and give this genie to give it to someone who needs it.
UNILAD: That’s not really selfish though is it?
Daisy Ridley: If it makes me happy isn’t it selfish? You know I’m very happy, I’m in a movie that I like, I’m surrounded by incredible people and I’m about to go home and spend Christmas with the family that I love.
UNILAD: This is incredibly wholesome, you’ve broken the selfish wish question with the nicest answer we’ve ever had.
Daisy Ridley: Really?
LucasfilmUNILAD: Whose career are you secretly jealous of?
Daisy Ridley: Oooh? There are people who I’m openly jealous of…
UNILAD: Well go with one of them…
Daisy Ridley: But jealousy is such an icky emotion… hmm, Saoirse Ronan! Because she’s amazing and because she’s taken very seriously, and it’s my intention as an actor to be taken very seriously [laughs], and that’s why I’m here now with UNILAD.
[It was only after I left the interview I realised we may have been the victim of subtle drag, well played Miss Ridley, well played.]
LucasfilmUNILAD: What is your strongest held opinion/what is a hill you’re willing to die on?
Daisy Ridley: My strongest held opinion? That you don’t have to experience bad stuff to experience the good. Some people are like ‘oh it adds to your experience’, well no you can just be grateful and have a good time.
UNILAD: What’s something you’ve never admitted publicly but you’ll tell me now?
Daisy Ridley: Honestly, doing ‘Unpopular Opinions’ and saying that Nando’s is overrated was a seriously scary moment for me, but what I will admit to you is that John [Boyega] has a Nando’s Black Card and that’s why he probably disagreed so much with me on-air, because he has to.
UNILAD: So what you’re confessing is that Nando’s have paid John Boyega off?
Daisy Ridley: Nando’s have paid him off, yeah.
PA ImagesUNILAD: You’re stuck living the same day over and over, what day would it be and why?
Daisy Ridley: I guess it would be a day with my family or pals… maybe my birthday. We were in Chicago and it was great, my best friend was there, her boyfriend was there, my mum was there… oh, but my sisters weren’t. Hmm, definitely a day when I’d have seen everyone. Basically I want a continuous summer holiday with everyone I love.
UNILAD: Are you deliberately trying to give wholesome answers to these questions?
Daisy Ridley: [Laughs] I don’t think I’m that wholesome.
UNILAD: Have you ever been left convinced – or at least persuaded – by a fake news story about yourself?
Daisy Ridley: No. Firstly, because I try not to read stories about myself…
UNILAD: Not even a rumour?
Daisy Ridley: No, none at all, I ignore all that stuff.
LucasfilmIf you had to remove one colour from the world forever, which would it be and why?
Daisy Ridley: [Gasps] Oh… oh. No I can’t remove a colour.
UNILAD: No Daisy, you have to.
Daisy Ridley: But it’s such a cause and effect thing… if I remove one colour I’m removing so many different things from the world and I couldn’t do that, I’m too wholesome.
UNILAD: You really are…
Daisy Ridley: Let’s be honest I’m too wholesome for this UNILAD edition of Inside The Actor’s Studio.
UNILAD: Well at least I have the exclusive that you think you’re the reincarnation of Elizabeth I and if I get my way that will be the headline of this interview.
Daisy Ridley: [Laughs] It is!
UNILAD: It is now you refused to remove a colour.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in cinemas now.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.