Star Wars' Daisy Ridley reveals the offers stopped after The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley reveals that for a time after The Rise of Skywalker came out last December she couldn't catch a cold: "There were loads of things I auditioned for and I didn't get any of them".

The Star Wars trilogy made Ridley's one of the most recognisable faces on the planet as her insignificant character, Rey, became crucial to the destiny of the galaxy through her connection to the Force.

You might think that the film world would be at her feet. Ridley, 28, told EW that was far from the case and she began 2020 in a panic because "nothing was coming through".

"It was so sad to finish [Star Wars]," she said. "When the film was released, I was like, 'Oh my God.' It was such a huge chapter. 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. To be forced to slow down, it was good mentally for me because it was a big thing in my life."

Ridley explained that before she achieved this state of calm, she was panicking about working again.

"Weirdly, at the beginning of the year nothing was coming through," she said. "I was like, 'Aww! No one wants to employ me.'"

She added: "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.'"

Things began to pick up for her just before the pandemic led to the industry shutdown. She got a call about a time-loop video game, Twelve Minutes, a voice role co-starring with James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe.

Twelve Minutes' mind bending concept revolves around a husband (McAvoy) who witnesses his wife (Ridley) get attacked by a stranger with a gun (Dafoe) who breaks into their apartment. The man bears a grudge against his wife and the husband is forced to relive the 12 minutes on a loop until he can figure out the mystery and prevent it from happening.

The Xbox and PC game Twelve Minutes will be published by Annapurna's video game division.

Elsewhere things were beginning to heat up for the London actress, despite the lockdown. She scored more voice parts – in Baba Yaga, an animated film for the virtual-reality Oculus Quest platform and also an original Audible series, Islanders, by playwright Elinor Cook.

"There have been [other] awesome things," said Ridley, "and obviously no one knows when they’re gonna go."

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