Actress Daisy Ridley recently talked about the scene where her character Rey kisses Ben Solo at the end of the film and declared that she believes “it felt earned.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens (2015), Lucasfilm
Ridley spoke with Josh Horowitz as part of his Happy, Sad, Confused podcast where she initially explained how the fan reaction to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was “upsetting.”
She said, “I think it’s still upsetting because you don’t want people to feel like you’ve like not served the thing that they’re a fan of. But Rian’s one was so divisive. So it really felt like the first one was, fairly, everyone was like responsive in a similar way. … And then Rian’s one, super divisive. And then the last one super divisive.”
READ: Daisy Ridley Rejects Feminist Attack On Star Wars Fans, Claims “Things Get Blown Out Of Proportion”
When asked about her thoughts on Rey kissing Ben Solo at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Ridley said, “I felt like we all — it felt earned. And what was interesting, again, I think it’s like intentionality. My feeling in that moment was it was a goodbye so that felt earned.
She explained, “Because you could call a kiss a thousand things, but I felt like it was a goodbye. And that whole scene felt so emotional. And I felt like I was saying goodbye to the job and then actually we had to pick up something that was missed. So on my very, very, very — in fact no one knows this — on my very, very, very last day and we were doing various pickups and stuff I had to literally sit and look and the camera was literally coming away from me and I guess I was looking at him and I … literally, immediately started like crying my eyes out ’cause it really felt like goodbye.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
Ridley would also indicate she believes fan reception to her character has improved over time, “What was strange is literally before I had breakfast with Kathy [Kennedy] last year I had already been on set ’cause we were making Magpie right after Sundance and I had like five people come up to me and go, ‘Are they going to do any more with you?’ It was really strange like in the sort of six to eight months before that the way with which I was being greeted by people’s response to it was quite different than it had been.”
She added, “And I think just time had passed and it didn’t feel so immediate.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
What do you make of Ridley’s comments regarding The Rise of Skywalker and her claim that she felt the kiss felt earned?
