Daisy Ridley Wasn’t Surprised By The Hostile Backlash To ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

The trailer for Knives Out, starring Captain America, Michael Shannon, and a lot of knives, was met with universal acclaim on social media, which must be a strange feeling for Rian Johnson. Ever since The Last Jedi came out, his Twitter mentions have been a nightmare (remember when Episode VIII had a lower audience score Justice League Justice League!), and the less said about the “fan” remake, the better. Not that Daisy Ridley is shocked by the backlash.

“I wasn’t surprised, no,” the actress told USA Today when asked about the controversy surrounding The Last Jedi. “Everyone’s going to have an opinion now anyway on the internet, but I also think it’s fair. If people hold something incredibly dear and think they know how it should be and it’s not like that, it’s fair for people to think they were done wrong,” especially if those people are Mark Hamill (who came around to Johnson’s vision). Ridley continued, “It doesn’t mean they were – ultimately, Rian’s a filmmaker and one person can’t dictate how a film is supposed to be – but freedom of expression, sure.”

She’s right: everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even when the opinion (“The Last Jedi is bad!”) is wrong. Also, cool it on the death threats, everyone.

Ridley also discussed Rey’s dope backflip in The Rise of Skywalker trailer, which she said you couldn’t do the full thing because “there was a risk of breaking ankles.” But “there’s a bit in the film where you see me upside down. It’s funny because I did 95 perfect of my (stunts), but that’s the one thing I didn’t fully do. People are like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool,’ and I’m like, ugh.”

To be fair, it is so cool.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens on December 20.