In the build-up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the marketing campaign is heavily pushing newcomer Daisy Ridley’s mysterious Rey as the main character, with her taking centre stage on both the first official poster and in the trailer. Despite the fact that she’ll be following the lead of Natalie Portman’s Padme Amidala in the prequel trilogy and Carrie Fisher’s Leia in the originals, don’t expect her to be anything like these two characters
“[Rey] begins the film alone. She is a scavenger on Jakku, and she meets Finn and they go on this adventure,” teases Ridley. “Would I compare her to Padmé and Leia? No, because they were born into privilege, and Rey certainly is not. And they have had a life before the film, but [this] really is the beginning of Rey’s story.”
Which is fair enough: there are clear differences between the characters. Padme and Leia were both in positions of authority and power, drawn into action because they had no other choice. On the other hand, Rey initially comes across as a bit more of a lone wolf, but as Ridley tells us, appearances can be deceptive.
“I like that she’s open to the people she comes across,” she continues. “She doesn’t purposefully go into an adventure; she’s drawn into it. She’s so open to things that are going on, even though there are doubts holding her back. I like that for me as a normal girl from London, I can see myself in that. You can be strong at times, and then totally vulnerable and think, ‘I can’t do this; this is not for me,’ and then be angry when things go wrong, and sad when things are sad. So I like that all of those things are represented in her.”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in cinemas on 17 December 2015. Read our bumper Force Awakens special in issue 113 of SciFiNow, on sale now. You can download our Complete Manuals to the Original Trilogy and Expanded Universe from GreatDigitalMags.com.
