Star Wars: J.J. Abrams Called Daisy Ridley's First 'Force Awakens' Scene "Wooden"

Taking on a role in a film as massive as The Force Awakens can come with a lot of pressure, a feeling Daisy Ridley knows all too well. Potentially making matters worse, the actress revealed that, for her first scene on set, director J.J. Abrams told her that her performance was "wooden."

"It is true! After the first take, he goes, 'Just a bit... wooden,' and then we carried on," Ridley confirmed of the rumor to Elle. "But JJ is the kind of person who before a scene says, 'Don't f*ck it up.' So he said, 'Just a bit wooden,' and I was like, 'Oh my God.' But it got better."

The scene in question involved Rey dismounting from her speeder while on Jakku, which might not have given her much opportunity to showcase her skills. Given the frankness of Abrams' direction, his comments could seem quite negative, but Ridley assures that wasn't entirely the case.

"It's only because that word 'wooden' is so loaded. But it was just tense," the actress pointed out. "And I thought, 'OK, loosen that sh*t right up and it'll get better.'"

The actress herself had doubts about her performance in The Force Awakens, but feels much more confident about her performance in The Last Jedi.

"I didn't think I was good in the first film, and I was struggling with that," the actress shared about how the first film compared to The Last Jedi. "It's not this big adventure that I'm on with John [Boyega]. I was thinking I did the first one because I didn't really know what I was getting myself into and I was having loads of fun, and suddenly I'm realizing what this actually is, and I can't f**king do this. I'm highly dramatic – so it's all, 'Oh my God'…finally, I was like, 'Oh yeah, this is working.'"

As seen in the trailers for The Last Jedi, Rey will spend much of her time with Luke an Ahch-To instead of aiding the Resistance alongside Finn and Poe. Some of the moments fans are most looking forward to are the potential confrontations between Rey and Kylo to be able to see how she uses her newfound Force abilities.

"What you should pay attention to is that The Last Jedi is putting out the message that things might not always be so clearly black-and-white," Ridley told Yahoo! Japan about the characters' relationship. "The dividing line between good and evil is becoming more and more ambiguous, and you could say that the relationship between Rey and Kylo symbolizes that."

We'll see what's next for Rey when The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15.

[H/T Elle]