‘I was covered in bruises. I’m pretty sure I ripped something in my shoulder’

Ever since the 2019 release of The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars sequel trilogy star Daisy Ridley has been experimenting with a wide variety of genres. She’s starred in a dystopian sci-fi thriller, a rom-com about daydreaming of your own death, a psychological thriller, a neo-noir thriller, a sports drama, and an animated movie.

“I feel like I’m drawn to very different things,” Ridley told Polygon in a video interview. While it’s true that her recent projects are spread across a wide group of genres, though, many of them have featured physicality as an important part of her performance. Ridley trained with Olympic swimmer Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in preparation for the historical drama Young Woman and the Sea, while Sometimes I Think About Dying required her to stay deathly still for a significant portion of the movie. (“I barely walked,” she jokes.)

Next up for her: a more traditional action star role in Martin Campbell’s Cleaner. It’s a Die Hard riff where Ridley plays an ex-military window cleaner who has to save the day when environmental activists (led by Clive Owen and Taz Skylar, who gives a scene-stealing performance) threaten the offices of the energy company she cleans windows for, including her brother, who is trapped inside as a hostage.