Daisy Ridley Defends Herself Against Ted Cruz
Daisy Ridley responded to a comment made by Texas senator Ted Cruz.
This article is more than 2 years old
Daisy Ridley has managed to find herself embroiled in a social media brouhaha thanks to the involvement of Ted Cruz and the issues surrounding Disney’s termination with The Mandalorian actress Gina Carano.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took what was quite possibly an unintended swipe at Daisy Ridley recently when the self-proclaimed Star Wars fan decided to defend Gina Carano, who was recently fired by Lucasfilm from The Mandalorian for a series of “abhorrent and unacceptable” posts to her social media account. In a tweet, the Texas senator wrote, “Texan Gina Carano broke barriers in the Star Wars universe: not a princess, not a victim, not some emotionally tortured Jedi. She played a woman who kicked ass & who girls looked up to. She was instrumental in making Star Wars fun again. Of course Disney canceled her.”
For Carano’s part, she noticed and offered a short bit of thanks to the Senator from Texas.
“Princess” as Cruz wrote, could be referring to Carrie Fisher as she went from Princess Leia to General Leia Organa and the “victim” Cruz hinted at could be Natalie Portman’s Padmé Amidala. But it was the “emotionally tortured Jedi” that got some fans riled up. During an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Daisy Ridley claimed she was not aware of Cruz’s slight, but she was quick to respond anyway. The actress, who plays Rey in the Star Wars trilogy sequels, lobbed a few back in Cruz’s direction taking a shot at him and his heavily criticized family vacation to Cancun while his home state of Texas was dealing with an unprecedented deadly freeze that resulted in devastating power loss and deaths throughout the state. “I did not know, and I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi,” Daisy Ridley admitted to Yahoo, “who doesn’t leave their state when it’s having a terrible time.”
Of course, those who have followed the Star Wars sequel trilogy (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker) also know that it hasn’t only been Cruz who has taken shots at Daisy Ridley for her portrayal of Rey, though much of the wrath has been directed at Disney and how they have completely destroyed the Star Wars movie franchise. Filmmakers JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson also received a huge amount of criticism for how badly they bungled Star Wars and its legacy.
During Daisy Ridley’s time in the Star Wars universe, the actress was able to step out of Rey’s shadow a few times. She was seen in the remake of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Ophelia. She also lent her voice to the animated feature Peter Rabbit as well as the animated series Star Wars: Forces of Destiny where she played Rey.
Daisy Ridley has been fairly quiet on the feature film front since the conclusion of the Star Wars sequel trilogy but that will change this week as Daisy Ridley will be seen in the sci-fi action thriller Chaos Walking which boasts a star-studded cast that includes Spider-Man’s Tom Holland, Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, and Nick Jonas. The movie is based on the Chaos Walking novel trilogy by Patrick Ness (who also wrote the screenplay), adapting the first book in the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go. Ridley’s new movie will premiere in movie theaters on March 5, 2021.
