Daisy Ridley has inspired generations of Star Wars fans by portraying Rey, but it looks like parts of the fandom are impacting her as well. In a recent interview with Wired, Ridley was shown various videos and social media posts related to her online presence, including a lightsaber trick video from stuntwoman Michelle C. Smith that went viral earlier this year. Ridley, who initially asked if Smith was secretly the real name for Michelle Pfeiffer, quickly became in awe of the video.
“Good God!” Ridley remarked, around 8:00 into the above video. “Good God above! Oh my god! That’s impressive, Michelle, wherever you may be. Wow.”
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Ridley’s reaction is pretty darn adorable, and certainly mirrors the response that quite a lot of people have already had to Smith’s video. Based off of early reports, it sounds like viewers might soon be in awe of Ridley’s own lightsaber skills, with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker bringing about “the most epic fights”.
“Well, the interesting thing about this film is that we concentrate more on the fact that [the lightsabers] are light, because the lightsabers were so heavy, as Eunice said, who is our new stunt coordinator, that it was more like broadsword fighting, which isn’t technically what it’s supposed to be because lightsabers are supposed to be light, by nature,” Ridley said in the same interview. “So they actually made the lightsabers lighter for us. We, in this film, have, perhaps one of the most epic fights in Star Wars.”
“I just think they’ve done a great job with all the relationships. With the fun friendships, and with the sort of strange thing with Rey and Kyloโฆ also we have a great fight. A great fight,” Ridley shared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast earlier this year. “And I was really happy that the Vanity Fair pictures did show a bit of it. It’s a great fight. Like I’ve become such a better fighter and they made the lightsabers lighter, so it actually looks like we’re swinging light and not like heavy [swords].”
“This fight, it was November, we had water being thrown at usโI’m not gonna complain about the cold, I’m just not gonna do it (laughs)โso it was like a real thing of stamina.” Ridley added. “It felt really epic, and it felt epic even at the time. One can only imagine what it’s gonna look like.”
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker lands in theaters on December 20th.