The controversial reaction to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is “still upsetting” to one if its stars, Daisy Ridley — even half a decade after the movie premiered.
While speaking with Josh Horowitz on a recent installment of his Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ridley addressed if she was “surprised” by how “divisive” the 2019 film was to its audience, per Deadline.
“I think it’s still upsetting because you don’t want to people to feel like you’ve not served the thing that they’re a fan of,” she replied.
Ridley forayed into the galaxy far, far away as Rey with the first of what is considered the “sequel trilogy,” the 2015 The Force Awakens, per IMDb. The actress acknowledged that Rian Johnson‘s The Last Jedi, which hit theaters two years later, was “so divisive.”
“It really felt like the first one [The Force Awakens] was fairly, everyone was like responsive in a similar way,” she noted. “And Rian’s one, super divisive. And then the last one [Rise of Skywalker], super divisive.”
Nonetheless, Ridley claimed that the reception “didn’t change how [she] felt about it.”
With respect to the kiss her character shares with Adam Driver‘s Kylo Ren, she said the moment “felt earned.”
“I think it’s intentionality,” she explained. “My feeling in that moment was it was a goodbye. So, that felt earned. Cause I mean, you could call a kiss a thousand things, but I felt like it was a goodbye. And that whole scene felt so emotional. I felt like I was saying goodbye to the job, too.”
According to USA Today, Ridley reiterated these sentiments to Inverse, telling the outlet that she “was grieving” following the release of the last Star Wars film, which just preceded the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having to sit and just be still in lockdown was incredibly helpful, in a way I hadn’t anticipated,” she revealed. “I realized there was a lot that I hadn’t processed properly.”
Fortunately for Ridley, she will be back in the next Star Wars installment, which was announced last spring. The movie, which will serve as a sequel to Rise of Skywalker, will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
