English actress Daisy Ridley reveals she struggled to find work after the final Star Wars film

Playing the lead in a Star Wars trilogy would be the dream for many an actor but Daisy Ridley has revealed it left her facing the dark side.

Idolised by millions of fans for her turn in the latest trilogy, the English actress said she struggled to find work after returning from a galaxy far, far away.

Miss Ridley, 28, played scavenger-turned-Jedi Rey in the latest series of films, starring alongside John Boyega, Harrison Ford and the late Carrie Fisher.

Despite the box office success, however, she was rejected after countless auditions in the wake of the final instalment.

Idolised by millions of fans for her turn in the latest trilogy, the English actress said she struggled to find work after returning from a galaxy far, far away

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she said: ‘Weirdly, at the beginning of the year nothing was coming through. I was like, ‘Aww! No one wants to employ me.’

‘There were actually loads of things that I auditioned for at the beginning of the year and didn’t get any of them.

I had that moment of ‘Oh my god!’ and then just thought ‘everything in its right time’.’

Miss Ridley was 23 years old when she made her debut as Rey in 2015 blockbuster The Force Awakens. She went on to appear in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.

She said she felt ‘sad’ to finish filming, but said her recent lack of work allowed for her to ‘process’ the last five years.

‘When the film was released, it was such a huge chapter,’ she said. ‘And, weirdly, the past few months of not having much… Obviously now it’s really nice to be working, but not having much [at the time] I feel like I processed the last five years.

Miss Ridley, 28, played scavenger-turned-Jedi Rey in the latest series of films, starring alongside John Boyega, Harrison Ford and the late Carrie Fisher

‘To be forced to slow down, it was good mentally for me because [Star Wars was] a big thing in my life.’

Miss Ridley most recently lent her voice to upcoming video game, Twelve Minutes, alongside James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe and provided the voice for the lead role of Magda in a virtual reality film based on the Baba Yaga myth.

The actress, who appeared in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and voiced a rabbit in 2018’s Peter Rabbit, also teased a ‘super dark’ upcoming project, adding: ‘I was like, ‘Do we need something this dark?’ But it’s also really interesting and about memory and everything’s a bit fragmented.’

She will also star in Tom Holland’s delayed dystopian epic Chaos Walking, which is slated for release in January 2021.