Daisy Ridley of Star Wars Fame is the Heroine in a Brand-New Action Thriller Cleaner

Daisy Ridley at the New York screening of CLEANER

Daisy Ridley of Star Wars Fame is the Heroine in a Brand-New Action Thriller Cleaner

by Brad Balfour

With indefatigable energy, Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley bounded to her chair on stage in the AMC theater on 42nd Street after a screening of Cleaner, her latest feature. There, she expounded on her career through Cleaner and beyond. The 32-year-old spoke about her experience joining the Star Wars franchise that has preceded it, learning the choreography for many robust action scenes and her wide range of roles.

Directed by Martin Campbell, Cleaner centers on radical activists who take over an energy company's annual gala and hold 300 hostages. An extremist within their ranks hijacks their efforts and kills their leader in order to murder everyone in the building so as to send his nihilistic message to the world. It's up to a window cleaner, played by Ridley, to find a way to save these innocent lives.

The English actress rose to prominence through her role as Rey in the Star Wars sequel to 1983's Return of the Jedi. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (also known as Star Wars: Episode VII) was released in 2015, co-produced, co-written, and directed by J.J. Abrams. The film also starred Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

Chronologically, it's the seventh film of the "Skywalker Saga," set 30 years after Return of the Jedi. The Force Awakens follows Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and Han Solo's search for Luke Skywalker and their fight as part of the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa and Rebel Alliance veterans against Kylo Ren and the First Order, the successor to the Galactic Empire.

From there, she starred in the next two Star Wars sequel trilogy films – 2017's The Last Jedi and  2019's The Rise of Skywalker, finishing this set.

Now, since Ridley's most recent action thriller has just arrived in theaters, she expounded on all things of her acting career and more. This Q&A is an edited version of her conversation with a moderator.

Cleaner makes its streaming debut exclusively on Max in the U.S. on Friday, June 13th. The film will debut on HBO linear on Saturday, June 14 at 8 pm.

Daisy Ridley as “Joey” the action film CLEANER, a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution.

Before getting cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you worked in two pubs in London. What were their names and what's your strongest memory of that time being a bartender?

I was a bartender, yeah. The two pubs are quite near my mom's house, so I'm not going to shout them out right now. The very strange situation I had there was this guy who used to come into the first pub I worked in. I hadn't seen him in years and years and years, and I was in Paris doing press for Sometimes I Think About Dying. We were not in the center of Paris, and I was having breakfast. I was looking at this guy thinking, "I really recognize him. Is he an actor?" He was the guy from the pub, and he came over. He was so sweet and, weirdly, he'd done a book about David Bowie, which was also very strange. We had this strange re-connection somewhere in Paris after I hadn't seen him since I literally served him a glass of wine at the pub years before. 

That's crazy. How many times have you watched The Force Awakens?

 [Cackling] I Imagine like 50. I've watched it maybe three times around the time it came out. and then weirdly, it was on in the gym when I was working out, so I saw a bit of it, recently.

Can you watch yourself on screen or are you one of those people who go to the premiere, say "Hi," and then immediately disappear?

I feel like I've been able to separate watching myself from the film as a whole. I want to see the film as a whole. It's never really comfortable, but certainly when it came on recently, I was like, "Oh!" It really felt very sweet to watch a very young me on the screen.

What's a project that you wish more people had seen?

That's interesting, Probably, Magpie – not many of you have seen it because it's very personal and close to my heart. I love the movie.

Magpie is really good and people who've seen it can verify that. What's a stunt you wish you didn't do?

There's a bit in this – not that I wish I didn't do it – but when I dropped from the ceiling, I suddenly became spider-woman and put the bag over the guy's head. The way I was being maneuvered, I had to be wrenched so hard and smacked into the thing that I think I pulled something out of my shoulder. We had to do that quite a few times. So it wasn't that I wished I hadn't done it, but it was one of those things that lasted a while, with the pain.

Would you say that that was the toughest stunt of your career?

No. What would I say was the toughest? This one is tricky though because the choreography of it was basically that I was up there and there were two guys holding me in the corner on a rope. It wasn't a pulley system exactly. Often that's how you measure everything, but when it's people, there's a margin of error. I was free-gliding in the harness, so someone had to hold my toes. Then they had to run away and would go, "three, two, one, action!" My heart was pounding. I knew I'd have to land in the right place, put the bag over the head, do the wrench and get it all right. So in terms of choreography and making sure it was camera ready, it took like 15 tries or something. It was intense. 

 [L-R] Daisy Ridley as “Joey” and Matthew Tuck as “Michael” in the action film CLEANER, a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution

Speaking of takes, what's the most takes you've ever done for a project and why?

Martin [Campbell, the director] is a many-taker and is really so specific about everything. I would say that I probably did more takes with him than I've done before. He's just very specific.

Do you still have someone on your bucket list that you were begging your agents to get in that movie or TV show?

Yeah, there's loads.

Who's on the top of the list?

At the top? Greta Gerwig is up there. I'm such a huge fan. Of course, she's going to be absolutely amazing but yes, I asked. I'm shameless.  

You absolutely should put it out there if you want to do something.

I just feel that [Greta] is so brilliant with actors. The fact that actors keep working with her again [and again] is such a testament to her. I love her movies.

If you had the opportunity to talk to someone who's no longer with us, an actor or a director, who would you love to have had a conversation with?

Interesting. Maybe Audrey Hepburn. I feel it would be interesting to know what it was like being Audrey Hepburn, just generally.

Absolutely. Have you ever picked a project based on where it's shooting?

[chuckles] No, but when a nice location comes up, oh, it's lovely. But no.

I read that you were a big Harry Potter fan when you were growing up. What house do you think you'd be put in?

I was either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

There's a huge Harry Potter series being made. There will be like seven or eight seasons. Have you asked anyone to be a part of it?

I haven't asked because, honestly, those performances are so phenomenal that I feel it would be so terrifying to take on one of those roles. I really loved the films. I love the performances and am really looking forward to seeing what they do with them. They will clearly be so different, but, my God, the pressure would be so high.

You've been in three Star Wars movies. How would you rank them?

It's like Sophie's Choice. I abstain.

It's fascinating how actors get ready for a role. Let's talk about Cleaner. Say you're a building cleaner on September 1st. What were you doing the month leading up to filming in terms of what's your nine-to-five Monday through Friday? Are you in training? Were you looking at the script? How were you thinking about your performance so that you were comfortable when you were on set that first day? 

For this, I had about six weeks of physical training. For my nine-to-five, I would go and do a general workout and then I do fine training for three hours. It really depended on the day. Some gun training, some wire work and that was pretty consistently four or five days a week for that time. 

Is it like a nine-to-five or are you going in at 10, and done in two?

It's fairly short. You'd be so physically just burnt out before you start filming, working at that intensity. It would probably be realistically in the room doing stunt work for four hours, on and off. I would often be speaking to Martin. I remember doing a chemistry read with Matt [Tuck] who plays my brother. We'd be talking through stuff, talking to the writer, getting to the grips with various bits and bobs. So that was happening in the six weeks before filming and then thinking a lot about how it might go.

 Daisy Ridley as “Joey” in the action film CLEANER, a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution.

How much are you looking at the script and thinking about dialogue? When are you starting to break that stuff down, so it starts to become muscle memory? How much [did you say] like, "Well, what am I doing in the first week?"

It was quite overwhelming to think about how many scenes I had alone, and the different head spaces I was in for each. I took more chunks of time in how we were filming it. And then, physically, I knew I'd be working up to stuff. I knew when the fight would be. Obviously, I had read the script and studied and all that sort of stuff. But then it was week by week. On Sunday, I'd be looking through everything that would be coming the following week. Then, each night, really preparing for the next day.

How much did Martin want to block-shoot or film certain things in order?

He was wonderful in that we filmed chronologically, but we obviously did do things in certain sequences. When I'm in the cradle we would do those sequences in order so when it was tilted in various sections of the film, we would work chronologically. We would never start at the last scene first, but sometimes we'd go from scene 10 to scene 30 to scene 100.

Jumping backwards to a Hollywood sort of thing, what was the stuff that you've learned as an actor over the last decade that you wish someone had told you earlier in your career about the industry or about acting on the sets of big movies?

I don't know that I feel I know anything now that I didn't know then. I feel like we all as actors have a responsibility to know our lines, know what we're doing and turn up prepared and ready to go – and be nice. I feel like we're all just trying to be the best people on set and, I suppose, try and be as present as possible. But again, I always knew that, but really you just never know what's going to happen. You never know how the scene's going to go. You can prepare and prepare and prepare for A and then B or C would happen. Maybe it's about being okay with things not going how you thought they might go.

You're number one on the call shoot in this movie. What kind of added responsibility do you feel when you're the leader of a movie and on a poster? You've seen other people where you've watched them go first on the call sheet. What did you learn when you were watching them that you were like, "I need to do this when I'm that person?"

It's probably the previous answer. We're all on set making films and we all want our films to be excellent. You're also spending so much time together with each other and everyone is working so hard. All one can do in any sort of number one position is to set an example for everyone else that you hope others will follow, like being on time, knowing what you're doing, knowing your lines and just generally making other people's day not difficult. 

You've done such different roles from The Marsh King's Daughter, Magpie, Young Woman and The Sea, Sometimes I Think About Dying, Cleaner, and We Bury The Dead – which is coming out soon. What have the last few years been like for you? A lot of times, certain actors are pigeonholed. They're doing the same thing again and again but yours are such different roles.

I really feel genuinely blessed that I have not been pigeonholed. It's weird that's the way I feel about the work I've been doing. On the plane over here, I watched Smile 2 then Paddington in Peru and then Practical Magic. I love such different films for various different reasons. I love different sorts of actors and directors. Getting to do my version of that, to work with different people in different genres and in different roles is so wonderful. The last few years have felt really great. I feel that each project has had its challenges to overcome, whether emotional, physical, or stamina-wise. It's good for young women to see how I'm going to do this. How am I going to do it when I'm exhausted? All of it has been a wonderful learning process, and I get to work with really great people.

For people who haven't seen Young Woman and The Sea, it is really worth your time. It's streaming on Disney Plus in case you haven't. It's really good. You've been offered a lot of scripts. You read a lot, but what was it about this one that said, "Oh, I want to do this?"

Honestly, the first thing I saw was Martin Campbell. He's like a legend. Then I read it and found the story to be very propulsive. Of course, I assumed that the goodies would win, but I couldn't figure out how it was going to come together. I really was excited to do a British action movie and, at the heart of it, I wanted to explore this relationship with Joey and her brother, which I felt was so relatable. I feel like the relationship is very understandable to a lot of people. She's trying to do the best she can. They've had a really tricky time and she messes up a lot, but she is trying to atone for that. I really think that's what makes Martin's film so special. Of course, the action's amazing and spectacular, but he always has his real beating heart at the center of his movies. [They're] always with a lot of joy and laughter, too – sometimes in very unexpected places.

 Daisy Ridley as “Joey” in the action film CLEANER, a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution.

Your character is not like Jason Bourne – you can be beaten. 

If she's had the shit beaten out of her, she has to look like that. As time goes on, she's so tired and messed up. It adds up to the feeling of "This poor woman.... What a day." Yeah, she can be beaten.

You mentioned the makeup and the way your character looked. How tempting was it, when you're made up like that, just beat up, to leave the set and go to the supermarket just to get people's reaction?

It was funny because I remember when we were doing The Marsh King's Daughter, there was a bit where I was quite bloodied and would send pictures to my friends. On this one I was sending pictures again. Everyone's like, "Are you okay? Why are you always beaten up in the things you do?" The makeup for this was so phenomenal. It was one of those strange things. Tamsin, who also designed Magpie, designed this and Charlie did my makeup. There would be moments where I would forget because, of course, it just feels like your face. Then I'd go to the bathroom and be like, "Oh my God, there's this insane black eye that she had built." Yeah. Scary, though.

And Clive Owen is in the movie.

When they said he was in it, I was like, "Oh my God, amazing ... reunited." Then we didn't share a scene, but I did say hello to him, and it was very joyful. Watching Clive come on set is really amazing. He has such a presence and magnetism. I was there when he came on to do something and I thought, "What a guy, what an actor."

Part of this movie was filmed in Malta. Were you in Malta for this?

Honestly, it was basically a holiday for me. It was really nice. Everyone else was working. I had, was I even on? Yes, I was. It was the very final moment when my face wasn't even on camera. It was really nice. They actually did some of the interiors in Malta. They did inside the police HQ, and then that gorgeous trackback shot at the very end. They were also shooting Gladiator II at the time there. Martin snuck over to the set to see what he could see, but it was unreal. We drove down the road. It's funny because when I was watching Gladiator II I was like, "Oh, we drove past that set." Because you could obviously see everywhere they were filming.

One of the things with this villain is that the antagonist makes a lot of really good points but just goes one step too far.

The terrifying thing about real baddies is that they're so clear in their beliefs. The baddy in this one – the root of what he's saying – is that he wants the world to be better. He wants people to stop screwing things up, which of course we can all relate to. But yes, the way he goes about it and ultimately the end goal for him is so extreme that he has no qualms with putting everyone in danger. That's really what's terrifying.

 [L-R] Daisy Ridley and Director Martin Campbell behind the scenes of the action film CLEANER, a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution.

What was it like filming the action scenes on set, especially since this isn't a Marvel movie? You don't have 200 days to make this. Talk about that sequence where you're burning the woman's face. Take us through filming that sequence and what it actually entails. Was that one day? Five days? Or what?

The fights together – the two fights I have – I'm going to say it took six or seven days to film them. Also, in that time, you're trying really hard not to get injured. My costumer on it, Katie, got one of those. We associate them with a grandma. Those things you can put in the microwave and they smell like lavender and put them around your neck. That honestly kept me going because in between fighting, I couldn't cool down too much because, of course, you have to stay warmed up. Shout out to those nana necklace things. Typically, it depended. The first fight I had with the woman because it was such an enclosed space, we were really trying to figure out how we could capture that. Because even the camera, being where we were, was soaked. It was such a small area but, oh no ... actually, even coming through the door – all of it, it's weird. It takes both longer and less time than you think it's going to take. You feel like, "Oh surely, we can do this in one day." Then, of course there's a hundred other things to do. But I'm going to round up to two weeks for all of the action.

Were you filming these action scenes in a two-week span? What is that like going home every night?

I have the wrench. I literally pulled my arm back so hard and in the slightly wrong direction that the whole set rattled. All the lights rattled, and I thought I broke my bone. It was so painful. Of course, you're already tired because you've shot a whole movie. It was really about trying to limit how injured I was. It was super intense and the wire work – me being Spider-Woman – all of that happened in that time. 

Was there someone on set who specifically is telling you in these two weeks what you should eat, or you should take B12? Or were you on your own and you've got to get through this?

I actually took it upon myself to do a meal thing, the whole shoot, because I knew I needed to be supported in a particular way. I made sure I was doing that. I'm sure it would have been done otherwise, but it was something that I knew going in that I really needed to maintain particularly for that shoot. Then obviously you just eat so much, and you're so tired going so consistently. We had really good craft [services] and we had one amazing barista. That coffee was so good. We actually got into the habit of – at 3 or 3:30pm – where we'd get hot chocolate and it was so lovely. It became a ritualized moment of togetherness and you knew where you were in the day. The thing about doing stunts is, time becomes a vortex. You don't know where you are or how much you've done. So it was a nice way to break up the day with that hot chocolate.

Towards the end of the film, your character and her brother were talking about Marvel movies. Do you have a favorite?

You know what I'm going to say? Although does it fall under Marvel?  Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse.

You recently signed up for another movie with Martin Campbell. Can you tell people about it? Are you filming it this year?

We should be. I play, in fact, someone from the military but an American military thing and I'm like, Wow! Does this sound just like Cleaner? But it's not. And she has to save the day. Oh my God, she's just a hero.

There are not enough female lead protagonists. Men get this movie with male stars a lot, so it's just nice when it is a woman kicking ass.

I'm so specific about what I like script-wise. He's so wonderful and took me out to dinner and had a folder with the script in it. I was like, "This is amazing." Because it was him, and I love him. I was thinking, "I'm going to do the script because it's you," but I loved the script. The writing is super-sharp; the relationships are brilliant. Honestly, it's totally different from this one. It's a really fantastic script and getting to work with him again would be amazing.

What did you learn working with him on Cleaner that made you think, "Oh, I need to do this when he films his next movie?"

Interestingly, one of the things that [Martin] talks about a lot is musicality in lines. It's something I had never been cognizant of but was something that he's very specific about – the musicality of lines. He'll often listen to a take and not watch it, which I've never seen happen with a director before: just to feel the rhythm of the music, of the language, which was quite lovely. What I love about him and his films – he's amazing at action of course – [is that] he's so specific about character. The thing he loves to say is, he'll come in and go "Communion, communion." I love that word now. To me it just means what are you doing with this other actor? Are you close enough? Are you sharing enough? And so, he'll come over and just be so close to your face, running it before you shoot. And then you'll come in and do it again. It's a wonderful way to work.

You did this video game called Trailblazer. It is coming out next month. You produce and star. What can you tell people about it?

It's the story of Bertha Benz, the first woman ever to do a road trip. Basically, her husband had invented a car, but he had crashed it. It had all gone wrong, and it was illegal for women to be out doing anything like that in those times. She snuck off in the car and did this 60-mile journey. In the process she had to figure out the gearing on a car and had to figure out the water system. There were various things she did along the way. So, in the age of innovation, she was really a pro trailblazer.

Have you played the finished version of the game?

I haven't, no. It looked beautiful, the images that I've seen.

Is it a streaming game or is it a console thing? 

I think it's VR.

Next month, We Bury the Dead premieres. What do you tell people about it? What are you excited for people to see in it?

It will be a very beautiful thing to see how people react to We Bury the Dead. My mom and sister watched it separately and my mom said, "Oh, it was so sad." And my sister said, "Oh, it was so scary." I was like, that's great because it's a zombie movie but, at the heart of it, is a woman trying to find her husband. And she doesn't know what she's going to find if he's alive or dead or somewhere in between. Yeah, it's beautiful.

Is this project still happening? Or did Women in the Castle happen?

That did not happen. I was desperate for it to happen.

Do you have a favorite piece of Star Wars merch?

My lightsaber. It's so funny too, I just had it put in a random place the other day.

You mean you have the actual prop?

Yes. I actually have two.

What about the toys and stuff they made? Do you have any of that?

I've had so much of it and then I was like, "It's really weird to just have loads of stuff with your own face on it." That went out to various friends and families. I really have BB-8 in my car that I just can't part with. I just can't take it out of the car. It's just been there.

What is your favorite part about being in the Star Wars universe? There's a lot of girls who see you in real life and must give you a double take?

It's weird. I feel like the double take has been happening more recently. It's interesting. There were really times where it became more – yeah, I don't know. It's strange. It sort of waves. But the best thing about being part of it is that I get to be part of it. Yeah, it's weird. Someone was talking about the [Disney] Celebration announcement for me doing the new one. And honestly, nothing feels like being in that room. It's the most unbelievable thing when people are united in their love for something. It just so happens that I'm part of Star Wars, as well. It's just so beautiful. Ultimately, a film about good versus evil and people overcoming. It's just the feeling that we all have together is the best part.

The next celebration is going to be in Tokyo. Do you have any plans to go?

I might be doing something then production-wise, I was hoping to go, but I don't know.

You're attached to Mind Fall, which sounds like an effing cool project.

That was one of those things that it was supposed to go. Then COVID happened. But I'm still hopeful. I've become very comfortable with things either taking 10 years to get made or getting made tomorrow. And Mind Fall is one that I really hope gets made.

It's the beginning of 2025. What do you have lined up that you're filming this year? What's been announced and what hasn't?

There's something next month that's very exciting. Once I'm able to share it, it's literally a dream.

Are you training right now, or thinking about it?

I'm thinking about it. Then there's potentially something after that. There are so many potentials happening this year. If all of the potential things were happening, I would literally not have a moment to spare. But I would hope that the other thing that's potentially happening ... I'll know in the next couple weeks. I don't want to jinx it. That's the other thing.

Hopefully, you'll also come up with another idea for a movie.

Oh, I have. My husband Tom [Bateman] and I are doing something. He wrote Magpie and he has written something else that we've been waiting for the green light on. It might be greenlit. Actually, I've had an idea that I'm working on with someone else that's very exciting, but that will be strange because it's the first time I've done that with another writer. 

Are you cheating on your husband? 

Honestly, when I went to the meeting he was like, "I can't believe you are doing this." [Audience laughs.] We had talked about it and honestly, he doesn't have the bandwidth. He's also writing something else. That was his idea, but we will do it together. 

Sometimes you need some kind of help to get rolling.

No, but I want to be in it. He's basically written out the whole thing without having written out the script. But it's so fantastic. I can't wait to read the script.

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: February 27, 2025.

Photo 1 ©2025 Brad Balfour. All rights reserved.

All other photos ©2025. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution.