Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Maisie Richardson-Sellers Originally Auditioned for Another Role

Having your first screen credit be in one of the biggest movies ever made, appearing opposite legendary actress Carrie Fisher in her role as Leia Organa Solo, seems like a dream come true, but for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow star Maisie Richardson-Sellers, her role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the happy ending to one of the worst experiences of her career. Admitting that the transition from theatre to film and television was hard because she got emotionally invested in her roles, Richardson-Sellers admits in a new interview that she didn’t just come in for an audition, land the role of Korr Sella, and walk away. Instead, she apparently auditioned (and auditioned and auditioned) for the role of Rey.

Richardon-Sellers sounds like she got pretty fast in the casting process, becuase she says that she read for the part numerous times. She also must have impressed filmmaker J.J. Abrams, who offered her the role of Sella.

“I did like six auditions for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was intense, and then obviously did not get the lead but still got another small part,” Richardson-Sellers told THR. “J.J. Abrams was so sweet, so lovely to me and he gave me a part in the film. My first ever on-camera experience was a scene with Carrie Fisher. I had no idea what I was doing. I had never been on a set before. I had only done theater up until that point. It was an overwhelming but amazing baptism by fire. It turned what could have been a painful experience into a really positive one, a learning experience.”

The first time Maisie Richardson-Sellers appeared to leave DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, it didn’t last long. The actor, who played Amaya Jiwe, also known as the Justice Society member Vixen, in the show’s second season, eventually left to return to her proper place in the past and allow the timeline to play out as it should. Soon after that, she came back as “Charlie,” a shape-shifting punk rocker who started as an antagonist but soon went on to join the Legends. But following the events of season five, which ended in June, Charlie, too, is gone — and this time, Richardson-Sellers is no longer listed as a series regular.

If you missed it, it turned out that “Charlie” was really Clotho, one of the three Fates of Greek mythology. Her sisters came looking for her, bent on reassembling the Loom of Fate that helped them control the world. Clotho was instrumental in helping the Legends beat her sisters, but with the family drama behind her and no more Loom hanging over her head, she decided to go back to a life of relative anonymity.

You can stream Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Disney+.