Daisy Ridley Didn’t Know Rey’s Origin During the Shooting of ‘Rise of Skywalker’
Star Wars is famously protective of its secrets — apparently even from its stars.
As a guest last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, guest hosted by Josh Gad, Daisy Ridley admitted that even she didn’t know the answer to Rey’s mysterious parentage until the end of shooting Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. If it seemed like Rey’s origin kept changing throughout the Star Wars trilogy, that’s apparently because it did.
As Ridley explained to Gad, “At the beginning there was toying with an Obi-Wan connection. There were different versions, and then it really went to that she was no one. Then it came to Episode IX, and J.J. [Abrams] pitched me the film and was like “Oh yeah; Palpatine’s grandaddy.” And I was like “Awesome!”
That wasn’t the end though; two weeks later, Ridley says, Abrams came back and said “Ooh, we’re not sure.” According to her, she “wasn’t sure what the answer was going to be ... even as we were filming.”
It’s not uncommon for big blockbusters to keep its most important spoilers on a need-to-know basis; crew and cast only get the info they need for their jobs and roles to prevent unnecessary leaks. This Rey stuff goes way beyond that; here even the people who need to know the info don’t have it. You could argue, I suppose, that Ridley’s own confusion about Rey’s history was good for the character, who was just as unsure about her origin as the audience. By The Rise of Skywalker, though, it does seem like Ridley probably could have given a more informed and pointed performance if there had been a little consistency here. It’s hard to play how a character’s feeling if you don’t know what they’re feeling.
Ridley’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! below:
Gallery — Cool Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Easter Eggs: