'Star Wars' Actress Daisy Ridley Responds to Senator Ted Cruz's Attempt at Criticizing Her Character Rey

When Gina Carano was fired from her role as Cara Dune in The Mandalorian for posting offensive [...]

By Alyssa Fikse

When Gina Carano was fired from her role as Cara Dune in The Mandalorian for posting offensive messages on her social media, many conservatives were quick to jump to her defense. One prominent Republican who voiced his opinion was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, tweeting his disapproval.

"Texan Gina Carano broke barriers in the Star Wars universe," Cruz wrote. "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." Carano expressed her gratitude, replying "Thank you Ted [purple heart emoji]."

Cruz's criticism about "emotionally tortured Jedi" reached Star Wars star Daisy Ridley, who had a few things to say about this pointed comment about her character, Rey. When Yahoo journalist Kevin Polowy mentioned Cruz's dig while interviewing Ridley about her new film Chaos Walking, Ridley had a perfect and succinct response. "I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi," Ridley quipped, "who doesn't leave their state when it's having a terrible time." Ridley was referencing the fact that Cruz abandoned Texas to take a vacation in Cancun while much of the state was experiencing devastating power outages caused by uncharacteristic snowstorms.

Ridley is no stranger to Star Wars criticism. Her character, Rey, has faced backlash from male fans since her entrance into the Star Wars universe, and opinions about the sequel trilogy have inspired a lot of heated debate. "It's changed film by film honestly, like 98% it's so amazing, this last film it was really tricky," Ridley said about the harsh reviews of The Rise of Skywalker. "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, released on the Rise of Skywalker DVD], this week," Ridley continued. "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]. You know, everyone's entitled to not like something, but it feels like it's changed slightly. But I think in general that's because of social media and what have you."

"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,'" she concluded. "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."

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