Daisy Ridley admits ‘Star Wars’ backlash was pretty upsetting

When you wrap up an epic franchise like Star Wars, odds are you’re going to upset a few fans for the creative vision that you’ve put out there. It’s kind of impossible not to. But that doesn’t make some of the online hate any less real. Just ask the guys behind Game of Thrones, who are probably still getting reactions to that final season and controversial ending. Maybe Star Wars lead Daisy Ridley should have had a chat with those guys ahead of the December 2019 release of The Rise of Skywalker, because perhaps then she would have been better prepared for the unexpected hate.In a recent episode of the DragCast podcast, Ridley chatted about fan reactions over the past few months and how upsetting it has been to her, given the love that she says went into making the movie in the first place. As she pointed out, some of the loudest negative reactions were a 180 from the ones she received for her first Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

 

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“It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98 per cent, it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky,” she said. “January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like, ‘Where’s the love gone?’ I watched the documentary, the making-of [The Skywalker Legacy], this week, and it’s so filled with love, and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and then people [don’t like it].”[video_embed id='1850070']RELATED: Daisy Ridley tells us about prepping to take on Adam Driver in 'Star Wars'[/video_embed]Of course when you belong to any kind of social media platform, as the 28-year-old used to, it’s pretty much impossible to tune out the haters. She and some of her co-stars (oh hey, Kelly Marie Tran) learned that the hard way after the second film in her trilogy, The Last Jedi, basically forced her off of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all of those other sites for good. Still, Ridley admitted the naysayers were harder to escape because of social media, since it’s still basically everywhere.“Everyone’s entitled to not like something, but it feels like it’s changed slightly. But I think in general that’s because social media and what have you,” she continued. “I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my newsfeed in January and trying to not see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like ‘Oh my God this is so upsetting.' So it’s been tricky, but then it’s having that thing of ‘I feel really proud of it,’ and ‘I’m so thrilled to be part of it.’ Yeah, but it’s a funny thing.”The film that marked the official end of The Skywalker Saga is now available on home video, and now seems like as good a time to catch up as any if you weren’t one of the people who contributed to the movie’s one-billion-plus dollars that it raked in at the box office. Or, if you were among the crowd who liked the film’s ending the first time around, maybe now’s just a great chance to watch it again.Meanwhile, considering the backlash the Star Wars films have always drawn (seriously, can you think of anything more controversial? Okay except GoT?) the divided reactions really shouldn’t have been that surprising. Sounds like Ridley needs to maybe regroup, focus on her upcoming role as Virginia Hall in A Woman of No Importance (based on the New York Times best-selling novel), and maybe stare at some Baby Yoda pictures. After all, if there’s one thing Star Wars fans can probably all agree on, it’s that everyone needs more Baby Yoda in their lives.[video_embed id='1936915']BEFORE YOU GO: Is it OK to order takeout during the COVID-19 crisis?[/video_embed]