Daisy Ridley Says She Had Trouble Finding Work After Star Wars

Daisy Ridley has become a household name through her work in the Star Wars franchise, portraying Rey multiple times in the saga's "Sequel Trilogy". The trio of films were undoubtedly a worldwide success, but it sounds like the end of the saga brought an unexpected change to Ridley's life. As the actress recently explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she actually was not getting much work at the beginning of this year, something that was apparently both a blessing and a curse for the actress.

"It was so sad to finish [Star Wars]," Ridley explained. "When the film was released, I was like, 'Oh my God.' It was such a huge chapter. And, weirdly, the past few months of not having much… Obviously now it's really nice to be working, but not having much [at the time] I feel like I processed the last five years. To be forced to slow down, it was good mentally for me because [Star Wars was] a big thing in my life."

"Weirdly, at the beginning of the year nothing was coming through," Ridley continued. "I was like, 'Aww! No one wants to employ me.' ...There were actually loads of things that I auditioned for at the beginning of the year and didn't get any of them. I had that moment of 'Oh my god!' and then just thought 'everything in its right time.'"

Even with Ridley's struggles with getting work after The Rise of Skywalker, she does have a few projects in the pipeline, including starring in the long-awaited adaptation of Chaos Walking alongside Tom Holland, and voice work in Asteroid Hunters and The Inventor. She also is signed on to star in the fantasy drama Kolma and the World War II biopic A Woman of No Importance.

Ridley isn't the only sequel trilogy cast member to struggle with that sort of work-life balance outside of Star Wars, with her co-star John Boyega expressing in 2017 that he wanted to sign on for projects in between the Star Wars films in order to defy general audiences' expectations of him.

"I knew I wanted to work between the [Star Wars] films," Boyega said at the time. "because I understand most of the population would probably be introduced to me through Star Wars, and not all of them would go back to see my early work, so there was obviously something to prove, in terms of versatility and the other stuff I could do."

What do you think of Daisy Ridley's comments surrounding her post-Star Wars career? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!