Daisy Ridley Swam 26 Miles For ‘Young Woman And The Sea’

Actress Daisy Ridley is putting those Force skills to good use!

The 30-year-old actress was a relative unknown before she was cast as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. After starring in 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” Ridley became a household name and reprised the character in 2017’s “The Last Jedi” and 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.”

While sitting down to talk about her new film, “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month, Ridley also talked about the grueling training she had to undergo for “Young Woman and the Sea.”

Disney’s “Young Woman and the Sea” is a biographical drama that focuses on the story of Gertrude Ederle, an American swimming champion, who won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympic Games. Two years later, in 1926, Ederle became the first woman to swim 21 miles across the English Channel.

Although Ridley never actually swam in the English Channel to prepare for her starring role as Ederle in the film, she did tell The Hollywood Reporter that she did swim around 26 miles in total as she was preparing for the film.

“I mean, I did not swim the English Channel and I will never swim the Channel. Some people are inspired by the characters they play to actually do the thing, but during training and the filming of it, I probably did swim 26 miles,” Ridley said.

“There is something so insane about athletes that I still can’t wrap my head around, and insanity might be the wrong word. The woman who trained me, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, won silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and she did so much training,” Ridley explained. “Of course, everybody applies that to their jobs, but to put one’s body through that is just beyond belief for me.”

Ridley praised O’Connor for being an “amazing teacher” and making her a “much better swimmer than I ever, ever thought I could have been.”

“Last January, when I started training, I could barely do 20 meters in the pool. And then by the last take, I was swimming in the Black Sea, and I was fighting currents in the sea by myself,” she explained. “I swam for probably two minutes tracking one ship next to me, tracking the follow boat, and making sure I was in line. So I was proud of myself by the end, but swimming is just such a different sport. I actually haven’t swam since.”

Fortunately, Ridley has already gotten to take a peek at the final cut of the film and she likes what she sees so far.

“I recently saw the final cut of the film, and it’s really good. I’m very, very excited for later this year, whenever we get to share it,” she added. Although no release date for the film has been announced yet, it will be available to stream on Disney+.

Although she has gone on to star in several projects since her time in the Lucasfilm franchise, it has become the role that Ridley is best known for. As such, in the same interview, Ridley was asked if she plans on coming back to star as Rey in the near future.

“Honestly, I have no idea. I feel like Rey’s story ended in a wonderful way with the last film,” she explained, referring to “The Rise of Skywalker.”

“It’s already been an insane three years since that film came out. I feel like quite a different person,” she added. “We’ve all gone through a massive change in the last three years, with lots of crazy things happening.”

“So I really don’t know if there are plans. I just don’t know,” she confessed. “But ultimately, I loved my experience, I loved what I got to do and I love the people I got to work with. So, should that happen again, even once, was amazing. Because the dream is to really be around nice people that make you feel good and feel heard while you do good work.”