Posted on 12/23/2022 9:26:50 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
Daisy Ridley is firmly cemented in the Star Wars universe thanks to her role as Rey, but the actress struggled to secure roles after appearing in the space opera movies.
The 30-year-old star appeared in the most recent Star Wars trilogy, starting with The Force Awakens in 2015.
After becoming one of the new faces of the multi-billion-dollar Disney-owned blockbuster franchise, one would think Ridley would have endless job offers, but she has revealed that wasn’t the case.
Following the release of the final film in the new trilogy, The Rise the Skywalker in December 2019, Ridley struggled jobs-wise in the following months before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.
"Weirdly, at the beginning of the year nothing was coming through," she explained to Entertainment Weekly, describing the months after The Rise of the Skywalker’s release. "I was like, 'Aww! No one wants to employ me.'"
She added that '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 it’s right time,'" she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at unilad.com ...
Her role was of somebody who unexpectedly became some kind of heroine. Put the emphasis on the “unexpectedly” she was picked because she wasn’t that impressive in herself. In other words, she was picked because she fit the type, and there aren’t that many roles out there for that type. Even those stupid Marvel movies don’t have much room for the fresh-faced ingenue or fresh off the farm girl. She doesn’t have the range to get beyond that. That happens with child stars and actors who get started playing adolescents.
That’s exactly as I see it. Zero talent, got lucky, set for life. Don’t complain.
I would agree with that, terrible writing and directing. Rey was a total Mary Sue, bypassing any character development. But thats not her fault.
She’s (Rey) about the only thing I like about the new movies. She devotes a lot of believability and effort into the silliness. I respect her effort
I liken it to Peter Frampton's "I'm In You" album. Technically sold millions of copies, but immediately forgettable.
If true, clearing just $9 million as the lead actor in three movies that each grossed more than a billion dollars is absurdly low pay.
She's a nobody. Not a known actor like Harrison Ford.
DR aside, there are a lot of rising young actors who have been hit hard by the covid shutdowns and now the rise of the streamers, which are swallowing the theatrical movies. It’s a youth oriented business and losing a couple of years at a key point in their careers will hurt. There are more movies and shows being made than ever, but actors who want to do something more than bad tv movies are being squeezed. The streamers are engaged in a quantity over quality race to the bottom with the occasional prestige project as an audience acquisition loss leader.
I actually met a couple of notable actors and a well regarded, still emerging director at a movie event not long ago. They shall remain nameless. This was a pure fluke since I don’t move in tv or film circles (aside from the FR movie ping list:)) and live on the non-Hollywood coast, but a random event popped up within range of me and I said why the heck not? The event drew a couple of hundred people at an out of the way location, so it was well attended but not mobbed.
The director and the two actors were completely generous with their time, staying after the formal program until every autograph was signed, every picture was taken, and (most importantly) until every question had been answered. They were outgoing, friendly, cheerful and engaged seriously with serious questions. They were personally impressive throughout and were among the last people out the door.
I asked about upcoming projects. Obviously they couldn’t tip things that haven’t been announced, but the actress in particular seemed a bit hesitant about how the industry is settling out post covid. This gal has done some spectacularly good work in underseen independent films. I regard her as one of the best of the under-30 crowd. (For the censors here, she’s never done nudity in any of her films, and that includes a big recent HBO project where there was some nudity — fairly tame by HBO standards, but not her. I wasn’t about to ask about that, but I do wonder if she has a no nudity clause in her contract. I hope she does, and I hope she can stick to it.)
Her most recent project should raise her visibility considerably so we’ll see. She has an unusuaol filmography for an actress her age and I’ve wondered if she might be very selective about roles. (She’s been rumored several times for spandex movie roles but hasn’t gotten one yet; I suppose she might take such a role for the paycheck but that’s clearly not her priority.) In answer to my question, she kept saying “I just want it to be GOOD.” Not big. Not a tentpole. Not the MCU. Just GOOD. She has a list of directors she’d like to work with, films she admires — and they’re mostly character dramas, not tentpoles — and interesting scripts and adaptations that haven’t gotten funded (yet). She is clearly a serious actress who wants to do GOOD work, but she’s in an industry in which the streamers are racing to the bottom. Her generation is a victim of bad timing.
She could learn to code.
not watching any movies about mud sharks, not even a star wars movie.
She should do fine on the Hallmark Christmas move circuit in a few years...
I guess they figured if her character stank, she probably did as well.
star wars is now a homo loving disney enterprise...
for that alone it now needs to go the way of all hollywood failed enterprises...
She did the best with what she had to work with - terrible script, terrible storyline - great resentment / division created among the fanbase. None of that is personally her fault, though.
Her interview spilled the beans of what was obvious - they had no story or plan for the sequel series and just made it up as they were going along with no care for a coherent story.
She could play the female version of the local guitar player in a remake of Deliverance.
They would have signed her for all three films, but only guaranteed the first film.
At a 50% tax rate plus agency fee, $9 million take home pay would work out to $20 million pre-tax pay for three films from the best known movie franchise in the world.
No agency in the world would sign off on a Star Wars lead actor contract that paid less than 1% of the theater revenue.
I have nothing against her, but the only scene I remember about her character was when she was an itinerant scrap scrounger, and she made some kind of bread that looked like a sponge.
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