There should be little doubt remaining about Daisy Ridley’s performance as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But as the saying goes, haters gonna hate, and to those detractors I offer evidence that Ridley truly was the right choice to play the young Jedi in Episode VII. A clip featured on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray/DVD reveals a casting session with Ridley, where she blew away J.J. Abrams and Co. with a stunning audition.
In the video, Ridley has the task of reading the intense scene between her character and Kylo Ren, who is trying to force his way into Rey’s mind. As the audition unfolds, Ridley literally bursts into tears, hissing, “I guarantee he would have disappointed you… get out of my head!” It’s incredibly powerful, and easy to understand why Ridley eventually won the part. Take a look for yourself, below:
The audition tape is part of Laurent Bouzereau’s feature-length documentary Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey , which chronicles the making of Episode VII. Star Wars fans will be delighted to know the entire documentary comes packaged with The Force Awakens’ Blu-ray/DVD.
In this particular segment of Secrets of The Force Awakens, Abrams offers insight into the casting process for Rey. “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.
“It wasn’t until we found Daisy that we just felt like she was capable of doing all of these things this character required,” Abrams continued. “She just blew my mind. She’s reaching this depth of struggle, and tears are streaming down her face. I thought, ‘This is unbelievable.’”
Good call, J.J. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on April 5. You can watch Rey continue her journey when Star Wars: Episode VIII arrives in theaters on Dec. 15, 2017.
