Daisy Ridley beat thousands of hopefuls to land her breakout role as Rey in the long awaited seventh instalment of the Star Wars saga, The Force Awakens – and judging from a newly released video of her audition, we can see why.
In a short clip from the behind-the-scenes documentary The Secrets of The Force Awakens, which will be included in the Blu Ray (or should that be Blu Rey?) release, director JJ Abrams explains the difficulties encountered in casting the film’s heroine.
‘What we were looking for was someone new. This character needed to be vulnerable and tough, sweet and terrified – and to find someone that no one knew who could do all these things took a lot of looking.’
He added ‘We were very lucky to find some great people, but the truth is, it wasn’t until we found Daisy that we just felt like she was capable of doing all these things that this character required.’
The footage from Daisy’s audition shows the young actress, who had previously played small roles in British TV staples like Casualty and Silent Witness, acting out an interrogation scene between Rey and the film’s latest villain, Kylo Ren. Judging by her impassioned performance, it's easy to see why Abrams was impressed.
'She just blew my mind, reaching this depth of struggle [...] I just thought, "This is unbelievable."'
The as yet untitled eighth installment of the Star Wars saga will hit cinemas in December 2017, and Daisy is currently thought to be in talks about a big screen reboot of classic video game Tomb Raider, in which she would star as Lara Croft.
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