Daisy Ridley of 'Star Wars' on Insta-Bullies, Disney Execs, and Living Up to Rey
Emily Schmidt
Updated on March 29, 2026
Here’s what she hopes is coming in 2018 and beyond: working alongside her heroes Emma Thompson, Wes Anderson, and/or Meryl Streep; getting her degree—she took her first online class in social sciences last year and will resume in January; and maybe having “some kiddies,” she says. But first: eight vegan sushi rolls, plum wine (her idea), and an honest chat about how she’s adjusting to life as Daisy Ridley, the girl from Star Wars. That seems like a good place to start.
Emporio Armani coat. Céline jacket, trousers. J.Crew shirt. Altuzarra brogues.
GLAMOUR: It’s nice to hear that you’re going home for the weekend. Does intergalactic fame affect your family dynamic?
Daisy Ridley: It’s weird for my family. My sister, who lives in London, and I look a lot alike, and I think she can occasionally feel that people are looking at her. This week my mom said this guy came over and was like, “Oh my God! You must be so proud of your daughter.” She goes, “I’m proud of all of my kids.”
GLAMOUR: It’s gotta be hard to stay normal, right?
DR: No. [Laughs.] People can get a bit like, “Oh my God, your life is different than mine.” But no, it’s not. Everyone’s got the same problems. We all get jobs, and we lose them. We have a good time, and we don’t have a good time. That’s it, you know? It’s changed in that some people have a certain expectation of what they might find when they meet me, which sucks, because I’m not that thing.
GLAMOUR: What do you think they’re expecting?
DR: That I’m, like, fun and want to chat all the time. And I’m like, “No, I like to be quiet too.” It could have been different, but I’m just not that way. I had an assistant for a hot minute, because that was offered to me. And literally, after a day I was like, “I don’t like this. I don’t like someone else making the decisions that I should be making.” I’m very busy, yes, but I’m not so busy that I can’t make my own decisions. I want people to contact me directly about what time I’m being picked up in the morning.
GLAMOUR: Your professional life has changed considerably.
DR: Careerwise, everything has changed. One hundred percent. And it’s brilliant. Without Star Wars I wouldn’t have been able to audition for Murder on the Orient Express. And I felt a little bit insecure about that, because I didn’t feel like I was good enough for it. When I got offered the role, I said to Ken [Branagh, who directed], “Did someone make you hire me?” He was like, “No f-cking way.”
GLAMOUR: Impostor syndrome, huh?
DR: Yeah! I was just, like, gobsmacked that I got the role. I remember Ken and I were doing a scene together, and he goes, “Just improvise.” And I do not like improvisation. You tell me what to say, and I’ll say it. It’s too stressful [otherwise]. But I was like, “OK!” Heart pounding. And we did it. I was like, “That was awesome!” And I sort of completed the whole film like that and not going, “Oh, I can’t do it,” which is what I occasionally do.
“I didn’t get what the fuss was at first. The reaction to Rey was so insane that it shocked me.”
GLAMOUR: With so much being offered to you now, how do you go about selecting your roles?
