At SXSW 2024, Daisy Ridley presented Magpie, a thriller she produced and stars in, from an idea she developed with her husband. She also talked about the pressure of Star Wars, the years that followed and the very different roles she has taken on since.
The idea behind “Magpie”
On the set of The Marsh King’s Daughter, the little girl playing her daughter called her “mummy” at work, while the child’s father chaperoned her and her mother stayed home with a baby. Ridley told the story to her husband, Tom Bateman, who wrote the script. In Magpie, a couple’s daughter is cast in a film; the husband becomes infatuated with the star, while Ridley’s character, Annette, is left at home under growing pressure. Directed by Sam Yates, it was shot in 23 days.
It was the first time she had been involved from the start as a producer: casting, financing, heads of department. Her priority was a good working environment, from clear communication to thanking people and good food and coffee on set.
“Try and enjoy it”
Cast as Rey at 20, Ridley did not fully grasp the scale of Star Wars. Everyone told her that her life would change, and she was so busy worrying that it took until the third film for her to feel she deserved to be there. Her advice to newcomers: try to enjoy it, because life goes by fast. When the trilogy ended, then lockdown arrived, she found herself grieving an eight-year chapter of her life.
Swimming, cleaning windows and Rey again
For Young Woman and the Sea, about the first woman to swim the English Channel, she trained for three months with an Olympian: the first time, she could not finish a single length. She has also made an action film with Martin Campbell, in which she plays a former soldier turned window cleaner, and was shooting the survival thriller We Bury the Dead in Western Australia. She is preparing to play Rey again, with a mix of excitement and nerves. On women’s representation on screen, which had declined in the latest figures, she is blunt: “We’re half the world.”